erstwhile

UK/ˈɜː(ɹ)st.waɪl/US/ˈɝst.waɪl/

adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,903 of 15,258mostly written

Erstwhile means belonging to a former time. His erstwhile colleagues.

It goes before the noun and means former rather than late, so an erstwhile friend is alive. It is formal and slightly literary, and it is one of the last survivals of the old word erst.

Definitions of erstwhile

1adjectiveerstwhileBelonging to a former time.C2
“Two of his erstwhile allies gave evidence against him.”

erstwhile is a quality.

Where it comes from

From erst + while.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

erstwhile in the wild

During the British Raj, 12 districts of the erstwhile Madras Presidency had their boundaries within the present-day Tamil Nadu.
List of districts of Tamil Nadu
Post the Indian Independence in 1947 and the political integration, the Madras Province inherited majority of the erstwhile Madras Presidency.
List of districts of Tamil Nadu
Mankada Kadannamanna Kovilakam was the seat of ruling family of the erstwhile Kingdom of Valluvanad.
Mankada
During British Raj, Valanchery was included in the Ponnani Taluk of the erstwhile Malabar District.
Valanchery

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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