Is it Until, Till, or ‘Til?

Don’t you hate when you are 100% sure about some little language tidbit—even going so far as to “help” complete strangers on the internet correct their misuses—and you turn out to be 100% wrong in your own understanding of it?

I’m in my early-50s and only learned in the past few years that ’til was not until with an apostrophe indicating dropped letters. Like most of my other grammar and punctuation knowledge, I’m not certain where or when I originally (mis)learned this, but one thing I was absolutely certain of was this: people who used till to mean until were wrong… and I was right.

Oops.

Until vs. Till vs. ‘Til

Until means up to the time that or up to such time as. It has been in use with that meaning, since about the 12th century A.D.

Till means up to the place of or as far as. Many believe till is a shortening of until; many are wrong. It isn’t. Till has actually been in use since a few hundred years before until. Until came from till, not the other way around.

’Til, as it turns out, didn’t debut until the 19th century and was primarily used by writers trying to imitate colloquial speech. In the dictionaries that list it, it is an informal or literary variant of till, not until. So despite the common inference, that apostrophe serves no purpose at all.

What Do We Do With ‘Til When Proofreading?

When proofreading transcripts, the record is verbatim: we can’t add, remove, or change words. So in proofreading a transcript, I’d highlight it, suggest “till,” and perhaps add an explanatory side note encouraging the court reporter to let me know his or her preference.

In general proofreading, I’d highlight it suggest “until” or “till” unless the context implies the author is trying for an informal tone.