The etymology of time is pretty straight forward. It comes from Old English: tima.

What is more interesting to me is how it compares to the same word in other languages.

Whereas English uses the word time to mean all sorts of things, other languages have developed separate words. For example, in English, time can mean:

• a specific point (“You may give me a wet-willy just this one time.“)
• a specific hour (“At what time did you wake up drooling?”)
• the general concept of duration (“I wish I had more time to come up with funnier examples.”)

In French, as an example of several languages that make the following distinction, these three ideas are expressed as fois, heure, and temps respectively.

Any thoughts on why English has not developed separate words? Perhaps it’s due to the way we see time culturally. Or perhaps it has to do with the general evolution towards more simple language. Though that then begs the question: is fewer words simpler or is separate words for separate concepts more simple?

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Happy WordNerd Wednesday! See you next week with more language history; feel free to request words for exploration either in the comments or on Insta.

References

Online Etymology Dictionary
https://www.etymonline.com/word/time