English
would
Would comes from Old English wolde.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English would
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1490, William Caxton: “And thenne at laste a-nother sayd that he wolde…”.
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150woldeWiktionary, English would
- Englishearliest quotation 1490wouldWiktionary, English would. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1490, William Caxton: “And thenne at laste a-nother sayd that he wolde…”
The story
The loss of /l/ in this word is probably due to weak stress, as in should and could (though in the latter, the /l/ was due to the analogy of the former two).
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Today it means
verb Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “would”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Old English wolde / would