حتى

See also: حتی, حبي, and جبي

Arabic

Etymology

• Traditionally, Arabic grammarians link it to the root ح ت ت (ḥ-t-t) in the senses of "to scrape or rub off", "to remove or destroy", "to end something", "to drive back or repel"; hence the meaning of an end-limit, the ending barrier or the point that holds back. Such a derivation would be highly irregular.
• Some classical dialects attest the word as عَتَّى (ʕattā), which is closer to the usual Semitic form found in Ugaritic 𐎓𐎄 (ʿd), Hebrew עַד (ʿaḏ), Aramaic עַד (ʿaḏ), and Akkadian 𒀀𒁲 (adi). If this is related, it could be connected with the root ع ت ي (ʕ-t-y), meaning "to be excessive", "to push the limits or be at the threshold", "to be extremely old or at the extreme end of life".
• Al-Jallad proposes an etymology from حَدّ (ḥadd, “limit”) + a conjunction *tay, as seen in مَتَى (matā, “when”, literally “what + *tay”) and North Levantine Arabic تَـ (ta-).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Preposition

حَتَّى • (ḥattā)

1. until, as far as, to the point of, even up to

   أَكَلْتُ ٱلسَّمَكَةَ حَتَّى رَأْسِهَا

   ʾakaltu s-samakata ḥattā raʾsihā

   I ate the fish, until its head

Conjunction

حَتَّى • (ḥattā)

1. until

   Synonym: إِلَى أَنْ (ʔilā ʔan)

2. in order to, so that

   Synonyms: كَيْ (kay), لِ (li), لِأَنْ (liʔan), لِكَيْ (likay), مِنْ أَجْلِ أَنْ (min ʔajli ʔan), لِأَجْلِ أَنْ (liʔajli ʔan)

3. even

   خَرَجَ النَّاسُ حَتَّى ٱلْأَطْفَالُ.

   ḵaraja n-nāsu ḥattā l-ʔaṭfālu.

   The people went forth, even the children

   كُلُّ تَعْمِيمٍ بَاطِلٌ، حَتَّى هَذَا التَّعْمِيمُ.

   kullu taʕmīmin bāṭilun, ḥattā hāḏā t-taʕmīmu.

   All generalizations are false, including this one.

Usage notes

• حَتَّى (ḥattā) is followed under most conveyed circumstances by the subjunctive mood; the details are complicated, see Wild 1980 for more.
• Unlike إِلَى (ʔilā) and عَلَى (ʕalā), this preposition never has the pronominal suffixes added to it: *حَتَّيَّ (*ḥattayya), *حَتَّيْكَ (*ḥattayka), etc. do not exist.

Adverb

حَتَّى • (ḥattā)

1. even, even this, including, even if
2. finally, until finally
3. (rare, disputed) unless, only if

Derived terms

• حَتَّامَ (ḥattāma)

Descendants

• Moroccan Arabic: حتى (ḥatta)
• → Ladino: ḥatta (Haketia)
• >? Maltese: sa (possibly)
• → Persian: حَتّی (hattâ)
  • → Azerbaijani: hətta
  • → Bashkir: хатта (xatta)
  • → Kumyk: гьатта (hatta)
  • → Ottoman Turkish: حتی
    • Turkish: hatta
  • → Uzbek: hatto
• →? Old Galician-Portuguese: até (possibly)
  • Portuguese: até
• →? Old Spanish: fata, fasta (possibly)
  • Spanish: hasta
• → Somali: xitaa
• → Swahili: hata
• → Uyghur: ھەتتا (hetta)

Trivia

ʾAbū Zakariyyā al-Farrāʾ (761-822 C.E.), an influential grammarian, famously said: “ʾamūtu wafī nafsī min ḥattā šayʾun” – “I shall die, while in my soul there is something off about ḥatta”, referring to his frustrations with its usage and grammatical complexities.

References

• Lane, Edward William (1863) “حت”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎^[1], London: Williams & Norgate, pages 508-510
• Lane, Edward William (1863) “عتى”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎^[2], London: Williams & Norgate, page 1951; specifically mentions the dialects of Huḏayl and Thaqīf.
• Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2018) "The Etymology of Ḥattā", in To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the languages, archaeology, and cultures of Arabia dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald, eds. L. Nehmé and A. Al-Jallad. Leiden: Brill.
• Olmo Lete, Gregorio del with Sanmartín, Joaquín and Watson, Wilfred G. E. (2015) “ʿd”, in A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition (Handbook of Oriental Studies; 112), 3rd edition, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 142–143
• Sadan, Arik (2012) “ḤATTĀ”, in The Subjunctive Mood in Arabic Grammatical Thought, Leiden: Brill, pages 197–249
• Wild, Stefan (1980) “Die Konjunktion ḥattā mit dem Indikativ Perfekt im klassischen Arabisch”, in Diem, Werner, Wild, Stefan, editors, Studien aus Arabistik und Semitistik. Anton Spitaler zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, von seinen Schülern überreicht, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, pages 204–223

South Levantine Arabic

Alternative forms

• لحتى (la-ḥatta)
• تـ (ta-)

Etymology

From Arabic حَتَّى (ḥattā).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ħat.ta/, [ˈħat.ta]

• Audio (Jerusalem)

  (file)

Preposition

حتّى • (ḥatta)

1. until, as far as, up to

   Synonyms: لـ (la-), لحدّ (la-ḥadd)

Conjunction

حتّى • (ḥatta)

1. until

   Synonym: لحدّ (la-ḥadd)

2. even
3. so that (before a subjunctive verb)

   Synonyms: لـ (la-), عشان (ʕašan), منشان (minšān)