shall (v.) Old English sceal, Northumbrian scule I owe/he owes, will have to, ought to, must (infinitive sculan, past tense sceolde), a common Germanic preterite-present verb (along with can, may, will), from Proto-Germanic *skal- (cf. Old Saxon sculan, Old Frisian skil, Old Norse and Swedish skola, Middle Dutch sullen, Old High German solan, German sollen, Gothic skulan to owe, be under obligation; related via past tense form to Old English scyld guilt, German Schuld guilt, debt; also Old Norse Skuld, name of one of the Norns), from PIE root *skel- (2) to be under an obligation. Ground sense of the Germanic word probably is I owe, hence I ought. The sense shifted in Middle English from a notion of obligation to include futurity. Its past tense form has become
Posted on: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 13:41:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015