Ago

Part of speech: adverb

Pronunciation: /əˈɡəʊ/

Definitions

1. A period of time in the past, measured backward from the present moment
2. In the past, at a distance of time before now
3. At an earlier point in time, looking back from the current moment

Etymology: The adverb "ago" is a survivor of a verb that has almost vanished from English. Its root is Old English "agān", meaning "to pass", and the adverb is the past participle of that verb: "agon" meant "passed" or "gone by". So "two days ago" originally described two days that had already gone by, and the word has been quietly carrying that sense of departure ever since. The verb itself is built from a prefix "a-" and "gān", "to go", which is related to modern "go" and "gone". The same building block shows up in the German "ergehen", "to come to pass", and in older Germanic forms such as Old Saxon "āgangan" and Gothic "usgaggan", both meaning "to go forth" or "go by". English kept the participle as a fixed adverb, while the verb itself dropped out of use, so "ago" now survives only in this single, frozen role.

Synonyms: previously, before

Antonyms: now, currently