had
/hæd/ verb
Also a form of have
- verb (auxiliary, followed by a past participle) Used to form the past perfect tense, expressing an action that took place prior to a reference point that is itself in the past. “I felt sure that I had seen him before.”
- verb (auxiliary, now rare) As past subjunctive: would have. “Had I not known you were coming this evening, I'd have left at midday.”
Etymology
From Middle English hadde (preterite), yhad (past participle), from Old English hæfde (first and third person singular preterite), ġehæfd (past participle), from Proto-Germanic *habdaz, past and past participle stem of *habjaną (“to have”), equivalent to have + -ed. Cognate with Dutch had, German hatte, Swedish hade, Icelandic hafði.
Webster’s 1913
- verb See Have. Had as lief, Had rather, Had better, Had as soon, etc., with a nominative and followed by the infinitive without to, are well established idiomatic forms. The original construction was that of the dative with forms of be, followed by the infinitive. See Had better, under Better.
Etymology [OE.had, hafde, hefde, AS. hæfde.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “had”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details