حتى

• Traditionally, Arabic grammarians link it to the root ح ت ت‎ (ḥ-t-t) in the senses of "to scrape or rub off", "to remove or destroy", "to end something", "to drive back or repel"; hence the meaning of an end-limit, the ending barrier or the point that holds back. Such a derivation would be highly irregular.
• Some classical dialects attest the word as عَتَّى‎ (ʕattā), which is closer to the usual Semitic form found in Ugaritic 𐎓𐎄 (ʿd), Hebrew עַד‎ (ʿaḏ), Aramaic עַד‎ (ʿaḏ), and Akkadian 𒀀𒁲 (adi). If this is related, it could be connected with the root ع ت ي‎ (ʕ-t-y), meaning "to be excessive", "to push the limits or be at the threshold", "to be extremely old or at the extreme end of life".
• Al-Jallad proposes an etymology from حَدّ‎ (ḥadd, “limit”) + a conjunction *tay, as seen in مَتَى‎ (matā, “when”, literally “what + *tay”) and North Levantine Arabic تَـ‎ (ta-).

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حَتَّى • (ḥattā)

1. until, as far as, to the point of, even up to

   ‏أَكَلْتُ ٱلسَّمَكَةَ حَتَّى رَأْسِهَا‎

   ʾakaltu s-samakata ḥattā raʾsihā

   I ate the fish, until its head

حَتَّى • (ḥattā)

1. until

   Synonym: إِلَى أَنْ‎ (ʔilā ʔan)

2. in order to, so that

   Synonyms: كَيْ‎ (kay), لِ‎ (li), لِأَنْ‎ (liʔan), لِكَيْ‎ (likay), مِنْ أَجْلِ أَنْ (min ʔajli ʔan), لِأَجْلِ أَنْ (liʔajli ʔan)

3. even

   ‏خَرَجَ النَّاسُ حَتَّى ٱلْأَطْفَالُ.‎‎

   ḵaraja n-nāsu ḥattā l-ʔaṭfālu.

   The people went forth, even the children

   ‏كُلُّ تَعْمِيمٍ بَاطِلٌ، حَتَّى هَذَا التَّعْمِيمُ.‎‎

   kullu taʕmīmin bāṭilun, ḥattā hāḏā t-taʕmīmu.

   All generalizations are false, including this one.

• حَتَّى (ḥattā) is followed under most conveyed circumstances by the subjunctive mood; the details are complicated, see Wild 1980 for more.
• Unlike إِلَى‎ (ʔilā) and عَلَى‎ (ʕalā), this preposition never has the pronominal suffixes added to it: *حَتَّيَّ (*ḥattayya), *حَتَّيْكَ (*ḥattayka), etc. do not exist.

حَتَّى • (ḥattā)

1. even, even this, including, even if
2. finally, until finally
3. (rare, disputed) unless, only if

• Moroccan Arabic: حتى‎ (ḥatta)
• → Ladino: ḥatta (Haketia)
• >? Maltese: sa (possibly)
• → Persian: حَتّی‎ (hattâ)
  • → Azerbaijani: hətta
  • → Bashkir: хатта (xatta)
  • → Kumyk: гьатта (hatta)
  • → Ottoman Turkish: حتی‎
    • Turkish: hatta
  • → Uzbek: hatto
• →? Old Portuguese: até (possibly)
  • Portuguese: até
• →? Old Spanish: fata, fasta (possibly)
  • Spanish: hasta
• → Somali: xitaa
• → Swahili: hata

ʾAbū Zakariyyā al-Farrāʾ (761-822 C.E.), an influential grammarian, famously said: “ʾamūtu wafī nafsī min ḥattā šayʾun” – “I shall die, while in my soul there is something off about ḥatta”, referring to his frustrations with its usage and grammatical complexities.

• Lane, Edward William (1863), “حت”, in Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams & Norgate, pages 508-510
• Lane, Edward William (1863), “عتى”, in Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams & Norgate, page 1951; specifically mentions the dialects of Huḏayl and Thaqīf.
• Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2018) "The Etymology of Ḥattā", in To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the languages, archaeology, and cultures of Arabia dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald, eds. L. Nehmé and A. Al-Jallad. Leiden: Brill.
• Olmo Lete, Gregorio del; Sanmartín, Joaquín; Watson, Wilfred G. E. (2015), “ʿd”, in A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition (Handbook of Oriental Studies; 112), 3rd edition, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 142–143
• Sadan, Arik (2012), “ḤATTĀ”, in The Subjunctive Mood in Arabic Grammatical Thought, Leiden: Brill, pages 197–249
• Wild, Stefan (1980), “Die Konjunktion ḥattā mit dem Indikativ Perfekt im klassischen Arabisch”, in Diem, Werner; Wild, Stefan, editors, Studien aus Arabistik und Semitistik. Anton Spitaler zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, von seinen Schülern überreicht, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, pages 204–223

• لحتى‎ (la-ḥatta)
• تـ‎ (ta-)

From Arabic حَتَّى‎ (ḥattā).

• IPA^(key): /ħat.ta/, [ˈħat.ta]

• Audio (Jerusalem)

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حتّى • (ḥatta)

1. until, as far as, up to

   Synonyms: لـ‎ (la-), لحدّ‎ (la-ḥadd)

حتّى • (ḥatta)

1. until

   Synonym: لحدّ‎ (la-ḥadd)

2. even
3. so that (before a subjuctive verb)

   Synonyms: لـ‎ (la-), عشان‎ (ʕašan), منشان‎ (minšān)