till

English Online Dictionary. What means till‎? What does till mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: tĭl, IPA^(key): /tɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

Etymology 1

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”). 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”).

Preposition

till

1. Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time).
2. Before (a certain time or event).
3. (obsolete or dialectal) To, up to (physically).
4. (obsolete or dialectal) To, toward (in attitude).
5. (dialectal) So that (something may happen).
   • 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 notes

The preposition till is ubiquitous in informal register in modern English; nonetheless, in formal register it is often replaced with until or to, except for in some varieties, such as Indian English. This predisposition is likely influenced by the widespread misapprehension that till is a "corruption" of 'til, although it is not. In fact 'til itself is also deprecated by some writers because its apostrophe was born of that same misapprehension.

Synonyms

• (until): til (nonstandard), 'til (nonstandard), until

Derived terms

Translations

Conjunction

till

1. Until, until the time that.

   Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try.

   • 1912, anonymous, Punky Dunk and the Mouse, P.F. Volland & Co.:

     And the Mouse sat and laughed till he cried.

Synonyms

• (until): til (nonstandard), 'til (poetic), until; see also Thesaurus:until

Translations

Etymology 2

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”).

Noun

till (plural tills)

1. (chiefly British) A cash register.
2. A removable box within a cash register containing the money.
3. The contents of a cash register, for example at the beginning or end of the day or of a cashier's shift.

4. A cash drawer in a bank, used by a teller.
5. (obsolete) A tray or drawer in a chest.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English tilyen, from Old English tilian.

Verb

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.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:till.

Translations

Etymology 4

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

Noun

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 terms

• glacial till

Translations

Etymology 5

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

Noun

till (plural tills)

1. A vetch; a tare.

References

General

• “till”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “till”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Until, Till, 'Til, or 'Till? in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 11 June 2019.

Footnotes

Anagrams

• it'll, lilt, lit'l

Estonian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtilː(ʲ)/, [ˈtʲilː(ʲ)]
• Rhymes: -ilː, -ilʲː
• Hyphenation: till

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German dille. First attested in 1660.

Noun

till (genitive tilli, partitive tilli)

1. dill (Anethum)

Declension

Compounds

Etymology 2

Possibly derived from the same stem seen in many dialectal bird names: tillutaja, tillutis, tilder (“shank (Tringa)”). It's not uncommon for bird names to become euphemistic terms for genitalia, cf. kull (“hawk”), English cock.

Another theory suggests this term is a hypocoristic variant of the stem seen in tila (“spout”), which in some dialects might have referred to a young boy's genitalia.

Noun

till (genitive tilli, partitive tilli)

1. (colloquial) penis

Declension

Derived terms

Etymology 3

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

till

1. ding, tinkle (high-pitched sound of a bell)

Derived terms

References

• till in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)
• “till”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
• Jüri Viikberg (2016) “till”, in [ASL] Alamsaksa laensõnad eesti keeles [Low German Loanwords in the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online dictionary)

Middle English

Verb

till

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

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Middle Irish tillid, alteration of Old Irish fillid (compare Irish fill).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃʰiːʎ/
• (Lewis) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰəiʎ]

Verb

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.

References

Further reading

• MacLennan, Malcolm (1925) A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Edinburgh: J. Grant, →OCLC

Swedish

Alternative forms

• til (archaic)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɪl/
• IPA^(key): /tɪ/ (see the usage notes for the preposition below)
• IPA^(key): /teː/

Preposition

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

   en present till min syster. ― a present for my sister

   pengar till resan ― money for the trip

   Vad vill du ha till middag? ― What do you want for dinner?

3. with

   Jag tar mjölk till mitt kaffe. ― I take milk with my coffee.

4. at (the next, timewise)

5. of

   en kompis till mig. ― a friend of mine.

Usage notes

• Often (more or less subconsciously to native speakers) clipped to "ti" (/tɪ/) in speech. Such clipping is less common for the adverb below, even when till is not the final word in the sentence, due to till being stressed as an adverb.
• Earlier, till governed the genitive case. Remains can still be found in certain expressions:

Derived terms

• hur står det till?

Related terms

• tills

Adverb

till

1. another, more; in addition

2. Expresses that the action of the verb is sudden and brief, when used with 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

3. Expresses that something is (completely or partially) changed or created through the action of the verb, similar to English up. Sometimes more or less redundant like in English, with a similar difference in tone.

   Synonym: (sometimes) för-

   ful ― ugly

   fula till ― ugly up (uglify)

   fula till något ― ugly something up

   laga till en måltid ― cook up a meal ("till" skippable, like in English)

   snida till en träfigur ― carve "up" (in the same sense as for the meal) a wooden figure ("till" skippable)

   trä ― wood

   träa till ― "wood up" (make woodier or the like, as an ad-hoc formation, which usually sound colloquial like in English)

   1. Expresses that the action of the verb brings the target of the verb toward (and usually to) a closed state.

      Synonym: (to a closed state) igen

      Antonym: upp

      knäppa till jackan ― button up one's jacket ("till" skippable, like in English)

      täppa till ett hål ― plug (up) a hole

      Stäng till dörren lite! ― Close the door a bit! (leaving it ajar)

4. (in some phrasal verbs) in(to) existence

5. to a toward orientation

Usage notes

The stress is on till, which helps disambiguate.

Derived terms

• en till

References

• till in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• till in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• till in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Wolof

Noun

till (definite form till gi)

1. jackal

Yola

Preposition

till

1. Alternative form of del

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) 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, published 1867, page 96