today, adv., n. and a.
(təˈdeɪ)
Forms: see day. Also as two words and with hyphen.
[OE. tó dæᵹ, to prep. A. 7 + day. Cf. the parallel tonight, tomorrow, and dial. to-year; also Ger. heut zu Tage, heutzutage.]
A. adv.
1. a. On this very day.
Freq. in phr. here today and gone tomorrow: see here adv. 1 e.
In Scotland and Border counties of England expressed by the day: see the dem. adj. B. 1 c, day n. 13 b (b).
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. C. lviii. 441 Ic hæbbe ðe nu todæᵹ ᵹesetne ofer rice & ofer ðioda. c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 14 Þu eart min sunu, nu to-dæᵹ ic ᵹestrynde þe. c 1120 O.E. Chron. an. 656 (Laud MS.) Ic Wulfere gife to dæi Sc̃e Petre [etc.]. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 3 Hit is an heste dei to dei. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 27 Gif us to dai ure daihwamliche bred. c 1205 Lay. 5442 To daie a seouen nihte. 1382 Wyclif Luke xiii. 32 Loo! I caste out fendis..to day and to morwe. 1483 Cath. Angl. 389/2 To day threday (A. Today thrydday), nudius tercius. 1535 Coverdale Josh. xxii. 18 That he maye be wroth to daye or tomorrow. 1535 ― Ps. xciv. [xcv.] 7 To daye yf ye wil heare his voyce [etc.]. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iv. viii, And bade mee weare this cursed sute too day. 1680 Otway Orphan i. i, To day they chas'd the Boar. 1797 Godwin Enquirer ii. v. 225 He will plead for the plaintiff today. 1819 Keats Isabella xxix, To-day thou wilt not see him, nor to-morrow. Mod. I have met them twice to-day. |
b. to-day..to-morrow († to-morn) = on one day..on the next day.
| 13.. Cursor M. 26769 (Cott.) Þat ar to dai, to moru ar gan. 13.. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. 727/56 Here to-day, a-wey to-morn. 1510–20 Compl. too late maryed (1862) 7 To daye I had peas, rest, and unyte, To morowe I had plete and processe dyvers. 1567 Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.) 30 To day ane man, is fresche and fair, To morne he lyis seik and sair. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 273 A wise man will save himself to day for to morrow. 1738 Gray Propertius ii. 65 To-day the Lover walks, to-morrow is no more. |
2. transf. At the present time, in the present age; in these times; nowadays.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 2123 (Cott.) Þe thrid part..hatt quar mast to day Regns o þe cristen lay. 1699 Garth Dispens. iv. 47 Five Guinneas make a Criminal to Day. 1874 Morley Compromise i. (1886) 8 What great political cause..is England befriending to-day? |
B. n.
1. This day; also, any day considered as present.
| 1535 Coverdale Exod. xvi. 25 To daye is y⊇ Sabbath of the Lorde. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ii. 316 Today is yesterday returned. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. iv. 20 Here, for to day!..but, to morrow, it goes away for ever. 1846 Longfellow Builders iii, Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. 1885 Manch. Exam. 22 Sept. 5/6 To-day has been beautifully fine throughout. |
2. transf. This present time or age.
| 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxx, From the story of Troy down to to-day, poetry has always chosen a soldier for a hero. 1889 Tablet 14 Dec. 947 The educated Scotchman of to-day. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 27 Sept. 10/1 A..tribute to the English girl of to-day. 1910 Nation 28 May 307/2 The fad of today is the orthodoxy of tomorrow. |
C. adj. colloq. Modern, characteristic of or suitable for the present day.
| 1969 Harper's Mag. Oct. 65/2 I'm a today writer. 1976 A. Cross Question of Max iii. xiii. 154 It's old-fashioned and sentimental and altogether not ‘today’ to talk of restitution. 1980 J. Wainwright Eye of Beholder 24 The today song-smiths..wrote boy-girl-and-bed words. |
Hence to-ˈdayish a., of or pertaining to the present time; characteristically modern.
| 1864 J. D. Campbell in Glasgow Herald 9 Nov., ‘Old Boy’, as a form of familiar address,..to-dayish as it may sound,..is at least a century old. 1885 Baring-Gould Court Royal xviii, The new plate looks to-dayish; there is not the character about it that our ancestral store possesses. |