adv. and sb. Forms: see DAY. [OE. tó dæʓ, TO prep. A. 7 + DAY. Cf. the parallel tonight, tomorrow, and dial. to-year; also Ger. heut zu Tage, heutzutage.]
A. adv. 1. On this very day.
In Scotland and Border counties of England expressed by the day: see THE dem. adj. B. 1 c, DAY sb. 13 b (b).
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., lviii. 441. Ic hæbbe ðe nu todæʓ ʓesetne ofer rice & ofer ðioda.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 14. Þu eart min sunu, nu to-dæʓ ic ʓestrynde þe.
c. 1120. O. E. Chron., an. 656 (Laud MS.). Ic Wulfere gife to dæi Sce 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 dai-hwamliche 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 tomorow. Ibid. (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 today.
b. Today … tomorrow († 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 B. (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.
1818. Derby Mercury, 1 Oct., 4/2. Gold is a slippery article, it is sometimes here to-day and gone to-morrow; in moderation, under the controul of discretion, it is good; an abundance of it has proved injurious to more States and families then it has ever mended.
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. sb.
1. This day; also, any day considered as present.
1535. Coverdale, Exod. xvi. 25. To daye is ye Sabbath of the Lorde.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., II. 316. Today is yesterday returned.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. iv. 20. Here, for to day!… but, to morrow, it goes away for ever.
1846. Longf., 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.
Hence Todayish 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.
1888. Boston Globe, 28 Jan., 4/3. Timely was rendered ‘adelik’ to call attention to a peculiarity of Volapuk adjectives. Adelik means literally ‘today-ish.’
