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Origin and history of too

too(adv.)

"in addition; in excess; very, extremely; more than enough, beyond what is appropriate;" an early Modern English variant of to (prep.) originally used when the word was stressed in pronunciation. German cognate zu has both senses of English to and too.

In Old English, the preposition (go to town) leveled with the adverb (the door slammed to). Since then, most of the adverbial uses of to have become obsolete or archaic except the senses "in addition, besides" (Old English), "more than enough" (c. 1300). As this often put the word at the end of a phrase (tired and hungry too), it retained stress. The spelling -oo to indicate this became regular from 16c.

The use of too after a verb, for emphasis (as in did, too!) is attested by 1914. The construction none too for "rather less than, not quite (x) enough" is by 1842. For too much, see much.

Entries linking to too

much(adj.)

c. 1200, "great in quantity or extent" (also "great in size, big, large," a sense now obsolete), a worn-down form (by loss of unaccented last syllable) of Middle English muchel "large, tall; many, in a large amount; great, formidable," from Old English micel "great in amount or extent," from Proto-Germanic *mekilaz, from PIE root *meg- "great."

As a noun, "a large quantity, a great deal," and as an adverb, "in a great degree, intensely, extensively," from c. 1200. Since 17c. the adverb has been much-used as a prefix to participial forms to make compound adjectives. For vowel evolution, see bury.

Too much was used from late 14c. in the senses "astonishing, incredible," also "too offensive, unforgivable;" by 1530s as "more than can be endured." The meaning "excellent" is attested by 1937 in jazz slang. Hence too-muchness (1791).

Much-what "various things, this and that" (late 14c.) was "Very common in the 17th c." [OED, 1989] and turns up in an 1899 book of Virginia folk-speech as well as "Ulysses."

to(prep.)

Old English to, ta, te, "in the direction of, as far as (a place, state, goal)," opposite of from; also "for the purpose of, furthermore;" from West Germanic *to (source also of Old Saxon and Old Frisian to, Dutch toe, Old High German zuo, German zu "to"). Not found in Scandinavian, where the equivalent of till (prep.) is used.

This is reconstructed to be from PIE pronominal base *do- "to, toward, upward" (source also of Latin donec "as long as," Old Church Slavonic do "as far as, to," Greek suffix -dē "to, toward," Old Irish do, Lithuanian da-), from demonstrative *de-. Also see too.

English to also supplies the place of the dative in other languages. The near-universal use of to as the verbal particle with infinitives (to sleep, to dream, etc.) arose in Middle English out of the Old English dative use of to and helped shade out the Old English inflectional endings. In this use to is a mere sign, without meaning. Compare similar use of German zu, French à, de.

As an adverb of motion, direction, etc., "to a place in view, to a thing to be done," in Old English. This use was frequent in Middle English in verbal combinations where it renders Latin ad-, com-, con-, ex-, in-, ob-. As a conjunction, "until, up to the time that," by late Old English.

The distribution of verbs among at, to, with, of has been idiosyncratic and varied. Before vowels it was sometimes shortened to t'. The phrase what's it to you "how does that concern you?" (1819) is a modern form of an old question:

Huæd is ðec ðæs?
[John xxi:22, in Lindisfarne Gospel, c.950]

Used absolutely at the end of a clause. with ellipsis of infinitive (same as the proceeding clause: would do it but don't have time to), it is attested from 14c.; OED reports it "rare before 19th c.; now a frequent colloquialism."

too-too(adj.)

"excessive in social elegance," 1881, slang, from the emphatic reduplication of too (adv.). 

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    Trends of too

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    also
    Old English eallswa "just as, even as, as if, so as, likewise," contraction of eal swa, from all "altogether" + so. Originally an emphatic form of so. The sense of "wholly so" weakened to "in addition to, in the same way," replacing eke. It was used in Old English to introduce a
    so-so
    mid-15c., "moderately well," 1520s, "indifferently, neither too poorly nor too well, only thus," from so (adv.), which is...As an adjective, "mediocre, neither too good nor too bad," 1540s....
    overdo
    Old English oferdon "to do too much, be excessive or immoderate, exceed the proper limit," also in late Old English transitive...Meaning "to overtax, exhaust, fatigue by too much action" (especially in phrase to overdo it) is attested from 1817....Of food, "to cook too long," is by 1680s (implied in past-participle adjective overdone)....
    dystopia
    It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, cacotopians....What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable; but what they appear favour is too bad to be practicable...
    premature
    mid-15c., "ripe;" 1520s, "existing or done before the proper or usual time, arriving too early at maturity," from Latin praematurus..."early ripe" (as fruit), "too early, untimely," from prae "before" (see pre-) + maturus "ripe, timely" (see mature (v.))...
    tail-gate
    The verb (also tailgate) meaning "to drive too close behind another vehicle" is from 1951 ("Truck drivers know the practice...of following too close as tail-gating" - "Popular Science," Jan. 1952); as an adjective, in reference to the open tail-gate...
    multiverse
    ; and we of the nineteenth century, with our evolutionary theories and our mechanical philosophies, already know nature too...impartially and too well to worship unreservedly any god of whose character she can be an adequate expression....
    town
    Old English tun "enclosure, garden, field, yard; farm, manor; homestead, dwelling house, mansion;" later "group of houses, village, farm," from Proto-Germanic *tunaz, *tunan "fortified place" (source also of Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old Frisian tun "fence, hedge," Middle Dutch tuun
    the
    definite article, late Old English þe, nominative masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun and adjective. After c.950, it replaced earlier se (masc.), seo (fem.), þæt (neuter), and probably represents se altered by the th- form which was used in all the masculine oblique cases
    door
    "movable barrier, commonly on hinges, for closing a passage into a building, room, or other enclosure," c. 1200, a Middle English merger of two Old English words, both with the general sense of "door, gate": dor (neuter; plural doru) "large door, gate," and duru (fem., plural dur

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