unto
UK /ˈʌntʊ/ · US /ˈʌntə/ conjunction, preposition
Forms vnto
- conjunction (obsolete, poetic) Up to the time or degree that; until.
- preposition Up to; indicates a motion towards a thing and then stopping at it. “Sir Gawain rode unto the nearby castle.”
- preposition To; indicates an indirect object. “And the Lord said unto Moses […]”
- preposition Down to the last; encompassing even every.
- preposition Until a particular time. “faithful unto death”
Synonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English unto, from Old English *untō, *und tō, equivalent to un- (“against; toward; up to”) + to. Cognate with Old Frisian ont to ("until"; > Saterland Frisian antou (“until”)) (cf. Old Frisian und (“up to; till”), Old Frisian til (“till; to”)), Old Saxon untō, untuo (“until”), Old High German unze, unzi, unza (“until”), Old Norse und (“as far as; up to”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌴 (untē, “until; as long as”).
Webster’s 1913
- preposition To; --now used only in antiquated, formal, or scriptural style.
- preposition Until; till. [Obs.] "He shall abide it unto the death of the priest." Num. xxxv. 25.
- conjunction Until; till. [Obs.] "Unto this year be gone." Chaucer.
Etymology [OE. unto; un- (only in unto, until) unto, as far as + to to; this un- is akin to AS. und OS. und until, conj. (cf. OS. unt unto, OHG. unzi), Goth. und unto, until. See To, and cf. Until.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “unto”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details