Etymology

had

H4A1D2

Today it means: Used to form the past perfect tense, expressing an action that took place prior to a reference point that is itself in the past. Full definition →

Middle English hadde ← Old English hæfde ← Proto-Germanic *habdaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*habdaz
  2. Old English · inherited fromhæfde
  3. Middle English · inherited fromhadde
  4. English todayhad

From Middle English hadde (preterite), yhad (past participle), from Old English hæfde (first and third person singular preterite), ġehæfd (past participle), from Proto-Germanic *habdaz, past and past participle stem of *habjaną (“to have”), equivalent to have + -ed. Cognate with Dutch had, German hatte, Swedish hade, Icelandic hafði.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.