Etymology

shall

S1H4A1L1L1

Today it means: Used before a verb to indicate the simple future tense in the first person singular or plural. Full definition →

Middle English schal ← Old English sċeal ← Proto-West Germanic *skulan
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*skel-“to owe, be under obligation”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*skal
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*skulan
  4. Old English · inherited fromsċeal
  5. Middle English · inherited fromschal
  6. English todayshall

From Middle English schal (infinitive schulen), from Old English sċeal (infinitive sċulan (“should, must”)), from Proto-West Germanic *skulan, from Proto-Germanic *skal (infinitive *skulaną), from Proto-Indo-European *skel- (“to owe, be under obligation”). Cognate with Scots sall, sal (“shall”), North Frisian skal, schal, Saterland Frisian skäl, schäl, schal (infinitive skälle, schälle), West Frisian sil (infinitive sille (“shall”)), Dutch zal (infinitive zullen (“shall”)), Afrikaans sal, Low German schall (infinitive schölen (“shall”)), German soll (infinitive sollen (“ought to”)), Danish skal (infinitive skulle (“shall”)), Icelandic skal (infinitive skulu (“shall”)), Swedish skall (“shall”) (infinitive skola).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*skel- all →

squealSkuld

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.