Syne

Part of speech: adverb, preposition

Definitions

1. Used in Scottish English to mean since or ago, referring to a time in the past ; in Scots, to mean afterwards or then, referring to what comes next in sequence
2. A Scottish adverb meaning from a past point until now or some time before the present ; also a Scots term for next, after that, or subsequently in a series of events
3. Scots dialect for since or long ago when speaking of the past ; likewise meaning afterward or then when describing the order in which things happen

Etymology: Scots "syne" is a shortened form of an older word, "sithen," which meant "since." Through a process of contraction, "sithen" wore down to "syne" in Middle English, and the shorter form stuck around in the northern dialects long after the longer one had faded from general use. The clipped form kept the same sense of a point in time looking back, so in Scottish English it still means "since" or "ago," as in a phrase like "a long syne" for a long time back. The surprise is that the same word also runs in the other direction. In Scots, it can mean "afterwards" or "then," pointing forward to what comes next in a sequence. Both senses grow from the same root idea of time passing from one moment to the next, so a word that looks backward in one sentence can look ahead in another.