entry
shouldn't
/ˈʃʊdənt/Expresses that something is not advisable or expected
From O.English should (was obliged to) + Modern English n't (not).
Word Ancestry
Long before it became a polite way to give advice, should was the past-tense form of Old English sċulan, a verb meaning “to have to” or even “to owe.” Around 1200, should still carried that heavy sense of obligation, as if an invisible debt collector were standing behind the sentence. Its close relative shall has since drifted toward promises and formal rules, while should settled into recommendations: “You should call,” or, with the negative attached, “You shouldn’t.” The missing l is part of a wider English disappearing act caused by weak stress—the same kind of erosion seen in would and could. So shouldn't is a tiny linguistic time capsule: an ancient word for owing, clipped together with not to tell us what duty says we must avoid.
The Story
Long before it became a polite way to give advice, should was the past-tense form of Old English sċulan, a verb meaning “to have to” or even “to owe.” Around 1200, should still carried that heavy sense of obligation, as if an invisible debt collector were standing behind the sentence. Its close relative shall has since drifted toward promises and formal rules, while should settled into recommendations: “You should call,” or, with the negative attached, “You shouldn’t.” The missing l is part of a wider English disappearing act caused by weak stress—the same kind of erosion seen in would and could. So shouldn't is a tiny linguistic time capsule: an ancient word for owing, clipped together with not to tell us what duty says we must avoid.
Kin & Kindred
From 'should'·was obliged to; ought to
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'n't'·not, in contracted form
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia