Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Is

Is, v. i. [AS. is; akin to G. & Goth. ist, L. est, Gr. ἐστί, Skr. asti. √9. Cf. Am, Entity, Essence, Absent.] The third person singular of the substantive verb be, in the indicative mood, present tense; as, he is; he is a man. See Be.

☞ In some varieties of the Northern dialect of Old English, is was used for all persons of the singular.

For thy is I come, and eke Alain. Chaucer.

Aye is thou merry. Chaucer.

☞ The idiom of using the present for future events sure to happen is a relic of Old English in which the present and future had the same form; as, this year Christmas is on Friday.

To-morrow is the new moon. 1 Sam. xx. 5.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.