Other forms: forgoing, forgoes
To forgo is to go without something you could have had. Forgo the fee, forgo a holiday, forgo the pleasure.
It is a choice rather than a loss, which is the whole distinction, and economists build on it: forgone earnings are what a decision cost you in what you did not take. It is often spelled forego, though that strictly means to go before.
1verbforgoTo go without something you could have had.
“She decided to forgo dessert because she was trying to lose weight.”
forgo is a giving up.
Also accepted in games: forego
Old English forgan means to go away or pass by, from for- plus gan, to go.
Old English
forgān — to go away, forgo
Middle English
forgon — to go by, pass up
English, today
forgo
From Middle English forgon (“to go by, pass up”), from Old English forgān (“to go away, forgo”); equivalent to for + go.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA