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Traditionally, Arabic grammarians link it to the root ح ت ت(ḥ-t-t) in the senses of "to scrape or rub off", "to remove or destroy", "to end something", "to drive back or repel"; hence the meaning of an end-limit, the ending barrier or the point that holds back. Such a derivation would be highly irregular.
Some classical dialects attest the word as عَتَّى(ʕattā), which is closer to the usual Semitic form found in Ugaritic𐎓𐎄(ʿd), Hebrewעַד(ʿaḏ), Aramaicעַד(ʿaḏ), and Akkadian𒀀𒁲(adi). If this is related, it could be connected with the root ع ت ي(ʕ-t-y), meaning "to be excessive", "to push the limits or be at the threshold", "to be extremely old or at the extreme end of life".
Al-Jallad proposes an etymology from حَدّ(ḥadd, “limit”) + a conjunction *tay, as seen in مَتَى(matā, “when”, literally “what + *tay”) and North Levantine Arabicتَـ(ta-).
All generalizations are false, including this one.
Usage notes
حَتَّى(ḥattā) is followed under most conveyed circumstances by the subjunctive mood; the details are complicated, see Wild 1980 for more.
Unlike إِلَى(ʔilā) and عَلَى(ʕalā), this preposition never has the pronominal suffixes added to it: *حَتَّيَّ(*ḥattayya), *حَتَّيْكَ(*ḥattayka), etc. do not exist.
ʾAbū Zakariyyā al-Farrāʾ (761-822 C.E.), an influential grammarian, famously said: “ʾamūtu wafī nafsī min ḥattā šayʾun” – “I shall die, while in my soul there is something off about ḥatta”, referring to his frustrations with its usage and grammatical complexities.
Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2018) "The Etymology of Ḥattā", in To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the languages, archaeology, and cultures of Arabia dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald, eds. L. Nehmé and A. Al-Jallad. Leiden: Brill.
Olmo Lete, Gregorio del with Sanmartín, Joaquín and Watson, Wilfred G. E. (2015) “ʿd”, in A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition (Handbook of Oriental Studies; 112), 3rd edition, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 142–143
Sadan, Arik (2012) “ḤATTĀ”, in The Subjunctive Mood in Arabic Grammatical Thought, Leiden: Brill, pages 197–249
Wild, Stefan (1980) “Die Konjunktion ḥattā mit dem Indikativ Perfekt im klassischen Arabisch”, in Diem, Werner, Wild, Stefan, editors, Studien aus Arabistik und Semitistik. Anton Spitaler zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, von seinen Schülern überreicht, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, pages 204–223