: unstratified glacial drift consisting of clay, sand, gravel, and boulders intermingled
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till, 'til, or 'till?
People often ask which is the correct synonym of until: till, ’til, or ’till?
Many assume that till is an abbreviated form of until. Actually, it is a distinctive word that existed in English at least a century before until, both as a preposition meaning “to” and a conjunction meaning “until.” It has seen continuous use in English since the 12th century and is a perfectly legitimate synonym of until.
’Til and ’till are much newer words, having appeared in the language only in the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively. Both are variant spellings, either of until or of till. Writers of usage guides have roundly condemned ’till as a barbarism (apparently because it seems to have added a superfluous l to the end of until). ’Til, for its part, has been deemed inappropriate in formal writing.
To sum up: until and till can be used freely and interchangeably, but you will probably want to avoid ’till and use ’til advisedly.
Preposition We won't finish till next week. The event doesn't start till tomorrow. Conjunction They kept playing till it got dark. He spun around till he was dizzy. Verb The farmers are tilling the soil. farmers tilling the soil from sunup to sunset See More
Word History
Etymology
Preposition
Middle English, from Old English til; akin to Old Norse til to, till, Old English til good
Verb
Middle English tilien, tillen, from Old English tilian; akin to Old English til good, suitable, Old High German zil goal
Noun (1)
Middle English tille locker, chest
Noun (2)
origin unknown
First Known Use
Preposition
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2