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Webster 1913 Edition

Had

Had

(hăd)
,
imp.
&
p.
p.
of
Have
.
[OE.
had
,
hafde
,
hefde
, AS.
hæfde
.]
See
Have
.
Had as lief
,
Had rather
,
Had better
,
Had as soon
, etc.
,
with a nominative and followed by the infinitive without to, are well established idiomatic forms. The original construction was that of the dative with forms of be, followed by the infinitive. See
Had better
, under
Better
.
And
lever me is
be pore and trewe.
[And more agreeable to me it is to be poor and true.]
C. Mundi (Trans.).
Him had been lever
to be syke.
[To him it had been preferable to be sick.]
Fabian.
For
him was lever
have at his bed’s head
Twenty bookes, clad in black or red, . . .
Than robes rich, or fithel, or gay sawtrie.
Chaucer.
Gradually the nominative was substituted for the dative, and had for the forms of be. During the process of transition, the nominative with was or were, and the dative with had, are found.
Poor lady,
she were better
love a dream.
Shakespeare
You were best
hang yourself.
Beau. & Fl.
Me rather had
my heart might feel your love
Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.
Shakespeare
I hadde levere
than my scherte,
That ye hadde rad his legende, as have I.
Chaucer.
I had as lief
not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
Shakespeare
I had rather
be a dog and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.
Shakespeare
I had rather
be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Ps. lxxxiv. 10.

Webster 1828 Edition

Had

HAD

, pret. and pp. of have; contracted from Sax.haefd, that is, haved; as, I had; I have had. In the phrase, 'I had better go,' it is supposed that had is used for would; 'I'd better go.' The sense of the phrase is, 'it would be better for me to go.'

Definition 2024

had

had

See also: -had and háð

English

Verb

had

  1. simple past tense and past participle of have
    • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park:
      About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton […].
  2. (auxiliary) Used to form the pluperfect tense, expressing a completed action in the past (+ past participle).
    • 2011, Ben Cooper, The Guardian, 15 April:
      Cooper seems an odd choice, but imagine if they had taken MTV's advice and chosen Robert Pattinson?
  3. (auxiliary, now rare) As past subjunctive: ‘would have’.
    • 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
      To holde myne honde, by God, I had grete payne; / For forthwyth there I had him slayne, / But that I drede mordre wolde come oute […].
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.4:
      Julius Cæsar had escaped death, if going to the Senate-house, that day wherein he was murthered by the Conspirators, he had read a memorial which was presented unto him.
    • 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 24:
      If all was good and fair we met, / This earth had been the Paradise / It never look’d to human eyes / Since our first Sun arose and set.

Adjective

had

  1. (obsolete) Available.
    • 1485, William Caxton, The Preface to Le Morte d'Arthur:
      Which be not had in our maternal tongue.

Related terms

Usage notes

Had, like that, is one of a very few words to be correctly used twice in succession in English, e.g. He had had several operations previously.

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: it · for · as · #16: had · you · not · be

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Verb

had

  1. preterite of hê; had

Breton

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *satos, from *sh₁-tó-, past participle of Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- ‎(“to sow”). Cognate with English seed.

Noun

had m ‎(plural hadoù)

  1. (botany) seed

Czech

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɦat/
  • Rhymes: -at

Noun

had m

  1. snake

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse hatr, from Proto-Germanic *hataz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₂d- ‎(“hate”), *ḱād-.

Noun

had n (singular definite hadet, not used in plural form)

  1. hate, hatred

Related terms

Verb

had

  1. imperative of hade

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɑt
  • IPA(key): /ɦɑt/

Verb

had

  1. singular past indicative of hebben

Hungarian

Etymology

From Old Hungarian hadu, from Proto-Ugric *kontə, from Proto-Finno-Ugric [Term?] *kunta.[1] Cognate with Finnish kunta.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈhɒd]

Noun

had ‎(plural hadak)

  1. (military) army

Declension

Inflection (stem in -a-, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative had hadak
accusative hadat hadakat
dative hadnak hadaknak
instrumental haddal hadakkal
causal-final hadért hadakért
translative haddá hadakká
terminative hadig hadakig
essive-formal hadként hadakként
essive-modal — —
inessive hadban hadakban
superessive hadon hadakon
adessive hadnál hadaknál
illative hadba hadakba
sublative hadra hadakra
allative hadhoz hadakhoz
elative hadból hadakból
delative hadról hadakról
ablative hadtól hadaktól
Possessive forms of had
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. hadam hadaim
2nd person sing. hadad hadaid
3rd person sing. hada hadai
1st person plural hadunk hadaink
2nd person plural hadatok hadaitok
3rd person plural haduk hadaik

Derived terms

(Compound words):

References

  1. ↑ András Róna-Tas & Árpád Berta, West Old Turkic: Turkic Loanwords in Hungarian. Part 2: L-Z, Conclusions, Apparatus (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011), 1277.

Jersey Dutch

Verb

had

  1. had
    • 1912, Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche taal— en letterkunde, volumes 31-32, page 309:
      En kääd'l had twî jongers; […]
      A man had two sons. […]

Novial

Verb

had

  1. past tense of ha

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *haiduz ‎(“state, condition, rank, person”). Akin to Old Norse heiðr ‎(“dignity, honor”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍃 ‎(haidus, “manner”).

Noun

hād m ‎(nominative plural hāda)

  1. person, individual; character
  2. individuality
  3. rank, order; degree
  4. honor, dignity
  5. office (esp religious)
  6. state, condition; nature, manner
  7. sex, gender
  8. race; kindred, family; tribe, group
  9. choir

Declension

Related terms

Slovak

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ.

Noun

had m ‎(genitive singular hada, nominative plural hady, declension pattern of dub)

  1. snake, serpent

Declension

Derived terms

  • hadí
  • hadica f

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowing from Arabic حَدّ ‎(ḥadd).

Noun

had ‎(definite accusative hadı, plural hadlar)

  1. limit
  2. boundary

Declension

Upper Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ.

Noun

had m

  1. snake, serpent

Welsh

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *sato-, from Proto-Indo-European *sh₁-tó-, past participle of *seh₁- ‎(“to sow”). Cognate with English seed.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɑːd/

Noun

had m ‎(collective, singulative hedyn, plural hadau)

  1. seed, seeds (collectively)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hæd/
  • Rhymes: -æd

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