Biforen

Part of speech: preposition, adverb, conjunction

Definitions

1. An archaic Middle English spelling of 'before', meaning earlier in time or in front of something ; used to describe a position ahead of or in advance of a point
2. An obsolete form of 'before' that signals something happening earlier in time ; also indicates a place located in front of or ahead of someone or something
3. A medieval spelling of 'before' meaning previously in time or positioned in front ; it can describe something that comes ahead of another in sequence or place

Etymology: "Biforen" is the Middle English form of "before," written with the Old English "bi" ("by") and "foran" ("in front, at the front") that gave us "fore." The compound was already in use by the time of the earliest Middle English texts, and its sense was spatial and literal: something stood "by the front" of something else, or came in front of it. Over the centuries the spatial sense spread into time. A thing that stands in front of another in line also comes first in sequence, so "biforen" came to mean "earlier than" as readily as "in front of." The same logic lies behind the modern "before" used as a conjunction ("before he left") and adverb ("I have seen that before"). The "-fore" element survives in other English words, such as "forehead," "forward," and "therefore." The Middle English spelling "biforen" also kept a final -n, which dropped away as the language developed in the later medieval period, leaving the form we use now.

Synonyms: before

Antonyms: after