Etymology

-t

Today it means: Used to form the past tense and/or past participle of some verbs. Full definition →

Middle English -te ← Old English -te ← Proto-Germanic *-id-
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-t · suffix1

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-id-
  2. Old English · inherited from-te
  3. Middle English · inherited from-te
  4. English today-t

From Middle English -te (past tense ending), -t (past participle ending), from Old English -te, -de (first and third person past tense ending), -t, -ed, -od (past participle ending), from Proto-Germanic *-id- (past tense stem ending of class 1 weak verbs) and *-idaz (past participle ending of class 1 weak verbs). In some verbs, like lose/lost, the ‐t‐/‐t arose during the Middle English period from the devoicing of the earlier ‐d‐/‐d. This devoicing typically occurred after the suffix was syncopated from ‐ede and ‐ed, forcing the voiced alveolar stop directly against the stem’s final consonant. See -ed (etymologies 1 and 2). Furthermore, in forms such as spelt and burnt, the participial -t is a later development during the Early Modern English period.

-t · suffix2

  1. Middle English · inherited from-t
  2. English today-t

From Middle English -t (e.g. aȝenst vs. aȝens (“against”)), likely resulting from -s + the, or various other words beginning with th-, t-.

-t · suffix3

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-þiz
  2. Old English · inherited from-t
  3. Middle English · inherited from-t
  4. English today-t

From Middle English -t, from Old English -t, variant of -þ (“-th”) following spirant/fricative sounds, from Proto-Germanic *-þiz. More at -th.

-t · suffix4

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-atjaną
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*-attjan
  3. Old English · inherited from-ettan
  4. Middle English · inherited from-ten
  5. English today-t

Suffix from Middle English -ten, from Old English -ettan, from Proto-West Germanic *-attjan, from Proto-Germanic *-atjaną.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.