Wiktionary

till

See also: Till and 'till

EnglishEdit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

PronunciationEdit

  • enPR: tĭl, IPA(key): /tɪl/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪl

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle English til, from Northern Old English til, from or akin to Old Norse til (“to, till”); both from Proto-Germanic *til (“to, toward”), from Proto-Germanic *tilą (“planned point in time”).[1][2] Not a shortening of until; rather, until comes from till with the prefix un- (“against; toward; up to”) also found in unto. Cognate with Old Frisian til (“to, till”), Danish til (“to”), Swedish till (“to, till”), Icelandic til (“to, till”). Also related to Old English til (“good”), German Ziel (“goal”), Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌻 (til, “something fitting or suitable”).

PrepositionEdit

till

  1. Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time).
    She stayed till the very end.
    It's twenty till two. (1:40)
    I have to work till eight o'clock tonight.
    • 1854, Prof. John Wilson, The Genius and Character of Burns, p.194 (Google preview):
      Similar sentiments will recur to everyone familiar with his writings all through them till the very end.
    • 1946 May and June, G. A. Sekon, “L.B.S.C.R. West Coast Section—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 148:
      The line was authorised on June 23, 1864, but not opened till July 11, 1881.
    • 2019 March 14, Ramzy Baroud, “Chasing mirages: What are Palestinians doing to combat ‘Deal of the Century’?”, in Ma'an News‎[1]:
      While the PA has not always seen eye-to-eye with US foreign policy, its survival remained, till recently, a top American priority.
  2. (obsolete, dialect) To, up to (physically).
    They led him till his tent
    • 1599, William Shakespeare (attributed), The Passionate Pilgrim:
      She, poor bird, as all forlorn / Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn / And there sung the dolefull'st ditty, / To to hear it was great pity.
    • 1806, “Lord Wa'Yates and Auld Ingram”, in Robert Jameson, editor, Popular Ballads and Songs, volume 2:
      And till the kirk she wadna gae, / nor till't she wadna ride, / Till four-and-twenty men she gat her before, / And twenty on ilka side
    • 1838, “The Outlaw Murray”, in Walter Scott, editor, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border:
      For a king to gang an outlaw till / Is beneath his state and his dignitie.
  3. (obsolete, dialect) To, toward (in attitude).
    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
      And then she changed her voice and would be as saft as honey: 'My puir wee Ailie, was I thrawn till ye? Never mind, my bonnie. You and me are a' that's left, and we maunna be ill to ither.'
  4. (dialectal) To make it possible that.
    • 1953?, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
      VLADIMIR: Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.) Get up till I embrace you.
Usage notesEdit

"till" in this context is usually considered colloquial in modern English (except for in some regional variants such as Indian English) and in most cases can be replaced by "until" or "to".

SynonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit

ConjunctionEdit

till

  1. Until, until the time that.
    Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Song of Solomon 2:7:
      I charge you, O ye daughters of Ierusalem, by the Roes, and by the hindes of the field, that ye stirre not vp, nor awake my loue, till she please.
    • 1846, Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense:
      She twirled round and round, / Till she sunk underground, […]
    • 1912, anonymous, Punky Dunk and the Mouse, P.F. Volland & Co.:
      And the Mouse sat and laughed till he cried.
SynonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle English tylle (“till”), possibly from Middle English tillen (“to draw”) from Old English *tyllan (“to draw, attract”) (as in betyllan (“to lure, decoy”) and fortyllan (“to draw away”); related to *tollian > Middle English tollen). Cognate with Albanian ndjell (“I lure, attract”).

Alternatively, Middle English tylle is from Anglo-Norman tylle (“compartment”), from Old French tille (“compartment, shelter on a ship”), from Old Norse þilja (“plank”).

NounEdit

till (plural tills)

  1. A cash register.
  2. A removable box within a cash register containing the money.
    Pull all the tills and lock them in the safe.
  3. The contents of a cash register, for example at the beginning or end of the day or of a cashier's shift.
    My count of my till was 30 dollars short.
  4. (obsolete) A tray or drawer in a chest.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 3Edit

From Middle English tilyen, from Old English tilian.

VerbEdit

till (third-person singular simple present tills, present participle tilling, simple past and past participle tilled)

  1. (transitive) To develop so as to improve or prepare for usage; to cultivate (said of knowledge, virtue, mind etc.).
  2. (transitive) To work or cultivate or plough (soil); to prepare for growing vegetation and crops.
  3. (intransitive) To cultivate soil.
  4. (obsolete) To prepare; to get.
    • 1614, William Browne, The Shepherd's Pipe:
      Nor knowes a trappe nor snare to till
QuotationsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 4Edit

Unknown, but possibly via etymology 3 (the verb) because alluvial deposit is used as a fertilizer.

NounEdit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

till

  1. glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders
  2. (dialect) manure or other material used to fertilize land
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 5Edit

From Middle English tylle; shortened from lentile (English lentil).

NounEdit

till (plural tills)

  1. A vetch; a tare.

ReferencesEdit

General
Footnotes
  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus. 2013. Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “till”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

AnagramsEdit

EstonianEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle Low German dille.

NounEdit

till (genitive tilli, partitive tilli)

  1. dill (herb)
  2. (slang) penis

DeclensionEdit

Declension of till (type riik)
singular plural
nominative till tillid
genitive tilli tillide
partitive tilli tille / tillisid
illative tilli / tillisse tillidesse / tillesse
inessive tillis tillides / tilles
elative tillist tillidest / tillest
allative tillile tillidele / tillele
adessive tillil tillidel / tillel
ablative tillilt tillidelt / tillelt
translative tilliks tillideks / tilleks
terminative tillini tillideni
essive tillina tillidena
abessive tillita tillideta
comitative tilliga tillidega

ReferencesEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

VerbEdit

till

  1. Alternative form of tillen (“to enthrall”)

Scottish GaelicEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

till (past thill, future tillidh, verbal noun tilleadh, past participle tillte)

  1. to return, come back
  2. to relapse
    Thill ris. ― He has got a relapse.

ReferencesEdit

  • A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language (John Grant, Edinburgh, 1925, Compiled by Malcolm MacLennan)

SwedishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old Swedish til, from Old Norse til, from Proto-Germanic *tila- (“goal”), from Proto-Indo-European *ád (“near, at”).

PronunciationEdit

PrepositionEdit

till

  1. to
    Välkommen till Sverige!
    Welcome to Sweden!
    Ge den till mig.
    Give it to me.
    Vi behöver två till fem nya datorer.
    We need two to five new computers.
  2. for
    en bra TV till ett bra pris
    a good TV for a good price
    Vad vill du ha till middag?
    What do you want for dinner?
    en present till min syster
    a present for my sister
    pengar till resan
    money for the trip
  3. with
    Jag tar mjölk till mitt kaffe
    I take milk with my coffee

Usage notesEdit

Derived termsEdit

Related termsEdit

AdverbEdit

till

  1. another; in addition
    Jag vill ha en till ― I want another one
    Jag ska vara här en vecka till ― I'll be here for another week
  2. Expresses something happening suddenly and for a short duration, when added after certain verbs. The examples below are for illustration and not comprehensive. Fairly productive for verbs where suddenness and short duration make intuitive sense.
    Han skrattade ― He laughed
    Han skrattade till ― He chuckled
    Han hoppade ― He jumped
    Han hoppade till ― He flinched
    Han somnade ― He fell asleep
    Han somnade till ― He nodded off
    Han slog honom ― He hit him
    Han slog till honom ― He gave him a punch (fairly synonymous, but makes it clear that it's a single punch and sounds a bit more intense)
    Han syntes ― He was visible
    Han syntes till ― He was spotted

Usage notesEdit

The stress is on till, which helps disambiguate.

Further readingEdit

WolofEdit

NounEdit

till (definite form till gi)

  1. jackal

YolaEdit

PrepositionEdit

till

  1. Alternative form of del
    • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 6:
      To our pleoughès an mulk-pylès till a neeshte holy die.
      To our ploughs and our milk-pails till the next holiday.

ReferencesEdit

  • Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 96
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