time
The indefinite continued progress of existence; a measured duration.
Etymology
Modern English time comes from Old English tīma, from Proto-Germanic *tīmô, likely derived from PIE *deh₂- meaning "to divide, to cut up." The semantic development is from "division" or "portion" to "a portion of duration." The same PIE root through different pathways gave Greek dēmos "district, people" (a divided portion of the population, giving English democracy and demography) and Latin tempus "time" (from an extended form *temp- meaning "to stretch, span"). The Old Norse cognate tími meant "time, proper time, prosperity." Related Germanic words include tide, which originally meant simply "time" or "season" — as in Yuletide and eventide — before narrowing to mean the ebb and flow of the sea. The connection between cutting and time reflects an ancient conceptualisation of duration as something measured by division into segments.
The Journey: *deh₂- → time
*deh₂-
*tīmô
tīma
time
time
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *deh₂-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Old Norse | tími | time, prosperity |
| Old High German | zīt | time |
| Greek | dēmos | district, people |
| Sanskrit | dāti | cuts, divides |
| Armenian | ti | age |
Did You Know?
The word tide originally meant "time" in general, not ocean movement. Phrases like "Yuletide" and "eventide" preserve this older meaning. The modern sense of tidal movement only developed because people spoke of "the time of the water" — and the word narrowed from there.