afore

UK/əˈfɔː/US/əˈfoɹ/

prepositionC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,398 of 15,258leans spoken

Afore means before, in dialect or old use. Afore the storm, afore now, come afore me.

It survives in regional speech in Britain and America and in fixed legal and nautical compounds — aforesaid, aforementioned, aforethought — where it is entirely alive. Malice aforethought is the classic phrase for premeditation. Note that the word is a- plus fore, built like ahead and aboard.

Definitions of afore

1prepositionaforeBefore.C2
“Don't you worry, I'll be home afore dark.”

afore is a preposition of time.

Where it comes from

Old English onforan is on plus fore. Ahead and aboard are built the same way.

Old English
onforan
Middle English
afore
English, today
afore

From Middle English afore, aforn, from Old English onforan or ætforan; equivalent to a + fore.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

afore in the wild

According to her 1786 Deptford survey, she was 6 feet 1 inch between decks afore, 5 feet 9 inches midships and 7 feet 1 inch abaft.
Fishburn (1780 ship)
The name reflects the pinafore having formerly pinned (pin) to the front (afore) of a dress.
Pinafore
The afore mentioned works are members of his long-lived series: Aberdeen Fence, Holstein Pedigrees, Prairie Music Series, and Piano Sheaves.
David Faber (printmaker)
Contemporaries noticed this: Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk lamented "It was merry in England afore the new learning came up", in relation to reading the Bible.
New Learning
Both Castlewellan Forest Park and Tollymore Forest Park are located nearby, as is the afore mentioned seaside resort of Newcastle.
A25 road (Northern Ireland)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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