English

to

/t̪oː/
A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English to, from Old English tō, from Proto-Germanic *tō ~ *ta, from Proto-Indo-European *de ~ *do (“to”). Cognate with Scots tae, to (“to”), North Frisian to, tö, tu (“to”), Saterland Frisian tou (“to”), Low German to (“to”), Dutch toe, te (“to”), German zu (“to”), West Frisian ta (“to”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian ndaj (“towards”), Irish do (“to, for”), Breton da (“to, for”), Welsh i (“to, for”), Russian до (do, “to”). Doublet of too.

    Etymology 2

    Borrowed from Hindi तो (to).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishto
      • inheritedOld Englishtō
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*tō
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*tō
            • inheritedProto-Indo-European*de
    • borrowedHindiतो

    Related: English too (doublet), Scots tae, North Frisian to, Saterland Frisian tou, Low German to, Dutch toe, German zu, West Frisian ta, Albanian ndaj, Russian до

    Words built on it: to-, to-be, to-do, how-to, into, go-to, to a man, to-come, use to, today, nice-to-have, talking-to

    Sources