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Origin and history of to-

to-(1)

word-forming element of Anglo-Saxon origin expressing separation, division, putting asunder, also "destruction" (on the notion of "apart, asunder," hence "to pieces"). It is reconstructed to be from West Germanic *ti- (source also of Old Frisian ti-, Old High German zi-, German zer-), from Proto-Germanic *tiz-, which is cognate with Latin-derived dis-.

According to OED (1989), some 125 compound verbs with this element are recorded in Old English; Middle English Compendium counts more than 200 verbs and some nouns: In modern spellings to-answer "answer thoroughly;" toswear, tothink, tobeat "beat severely;" tomelt "melt completely;" tocleave "split asunder" (transitive and intransitive); to-squat "flatten, crush," towild "make wild or unruly;" Chaucer writes of a shield to-dashed in combat.

But the number declined rapidly in later Middle English and disappeared by c. 1500 except as conscious archaisms (to-shiver "break to pieces;" all to-brast). In 14c. the to- often appears to be merely emphatic, as if "all too" (to-drunk, to-stink, etc.).

to-(2)

word-forming element of Anglo-Saxon origin, expressing motion, direction, addition; not properly a prefix but the preposition to merged with the following word. This was common in Middle English (to-hear "listen to," to-knit "bind up," to-cast "add together," tocome "arrive, occur, happen;" to-put "affix," to-set, to-stick, to-yield "give up," etc.), but few survive: to-do, together, and time references such as today, tonight, tomorrow — Chaucer also has to-yeere.

Also compare Middle English towhile (conj., adv.) "for as long as; in the meantime." But in toward, to is the principal element, and -ward is the suffix.

Entries linking to to-

to(prep.)

Old English to, ta, te, "in the direction of, as far as (a place, state, goal)," opposite of from; also "for the purpose of, furthermore;" from West Germanic *to (source also of Old Saxon and Old Frisian to, Dutch toe, Old High German zuo, German zu "to"). Not found in Scandinavian, where the equivalent of till (prep.) is used.

This is reconstructed to be from PIE pronominal base *do- "to, toward, upward" (source also of Latin donec "as long as," Old Church Slavonic do "as far as, to," Greek suffix -dē "to, toward," Old Irish do, Lithuanian da-), from demonstrative *de-. Also see too.

English to also supplies the place of the dative in other languages. The near-universal use of to as the verbal particle with infinitives (to sleep, to dream, etc.) arose in Middle English out of the Old English dative use of to and helped shade out the Old English inflectional endings. In this use to is a mere sign, without meaning. Compare similar use of German zu, French à, de.

As an adverb of motion, direction, etc., "to a place in view, to a thing to be done," in Old English. This use was frequent in Middle English in verbal combinations where it renders Latin ad-, com-, con-, ex-, in-, ob-. As a conjunction, "until, up to the time that," by late Old English.

The distribution of verbs among at, to, with, of has been idiosyncratic and varied. Before vowels it was sometimes shortened to t'. The phrase what's it to you "how does that concern you?" (1819) is a modern form of an old question:

Huæd is ðec ðæs?

[John xxi:22, in Lindisfarne Gospel, c.950]

Used absolutely at the end of a clause. with ellipsis of infinitive (same as the proceeding clause: would do it but don't have time to), it is attested from 14c.; OED reports it "rare before 19th c.; now a frequent colloquialism."

today(adv.)

Middle English to dai "on this day," from Old English todæge, to dæge "on (this present) day," from to "at, on" (see to) + dæge, dative of dæg "day" (see day). Meaning "in modern times" is from c. 1300. As a noun from 1530s, "this day; any day considered as present." Generally it was written as two words until 16c., after which it usually was written to-day until early 20c.

Similar constructions exist in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch van daag "from-day," Danish and Swedish i dag "in day." German heute is from Old High German hiutu, from Proto-Germanic *hiu tagu "on (this) day," with first element from PIE pronominal stem *ki-, represented by Latin cis "on this side."

Formerly also used in reckoning time: to day seven night in Middle English was "a week from today;" today third day was "three days from today."