English

should

/ʃəd/
Used to issue an instruction (traditionally seen as carrying less force of authority than alternatives such as 'shall' or 'must').

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    Origin

    From Middle English scholde, from Old English sċolde, first and third person preterite form of sċulan (“should,” “have to,” “to owe”), the ancestor of English shall. By surface analysis, shall + -ed. Cognate with German sollte, Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐌻𐌳𐌰 (skulda), Swedish skulle. Related to Middle English shild and shildy.

    The loss of /l/ in this word is probably due to weak stress, as in would and could (though in the latter, the /l/ was due to the analogy of the former two).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishscholde
      • inheritedOld Englishsċolde
    • surface analysisEnglishshall “Used before a verb to indicate the simple future tense in the first person singular or plural.”
    • surface analysisEnglish-ed “Used to form past tenses of (regular) verbs. In linguistics, it is used for the base form of any pa…”

    Related: English shall, German sollen, Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐌻𐌰𐌽, Swedish skulle

    Sources