afore
1
9.9
- subordinating conjunction
- /əˈfɔː/
- Archaic
:
antes
- I never would have thought it, though now I recall as folk said she nearly killed me even afore she was born.
Examples
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He mentioned that he had visited the museum afore moving to the city.
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As I see it, no soul can leave... its mortal shell afore a body dies.
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Not that well, mind; maybe only a year afore he died.
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A death shall come to Inisherin afore the month is out.
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Well, he's likely to lose his scalp afore he gets there.
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Hoo, they'll be halfway round the Marble Arch afore they get to the fish course.
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'Twill keep steady afore the tender comes in the morn, I 'spect...
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Like Frank Wallingham... to get them drinkables to our saloons right now afore the snows hit.
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She had finished her homework long afore the deadline arrived.
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The stories of the town were told in the evenings afore the fire.
Synonyms
8
9.9
To show that one action happens before another
Surface Forms
Morphology
afore = (semi-transparent) = a + fore
The form is historically compositional as a- + fore, but the archaic prefix and limited modern productivity make the meaning only partly transparent to contemporary learners. [Postprocessing: moved 'fore' from base_words to prefix]
Etymology
Afore was also used like the conjunction 'before' to join events and comes from old English a- ('at') and fore ('front' or 'before'). So when afore starts a clause, it simply means the same as 'before', as in 'Finish this afore you go'.