Withouten

Part of speech: preposition

Definitions

1. An archaic word meaning lacking or not having something, used in older English much as the modern word without is used today
2. A former form of the preposition without, signifying the absence of a thing or the lack of some quality or companion
3. An old-fashioned preposition expressing absence or lack, found in earlier English literature and still seen in historical or poetic texts

Etymology: "Withouten" is a Middle English form built from "with" and the suffix "-outen," which descends from the Old English "ūtan," meaning "outside" or "without." Put together, the phrase literally meant something like "with outside," so the preposition began life as a sense of being outside something rather than lacking it. The word lost its original force over time, as the "with-" part gradually came to express absence in a way that the older compound had long since taken over. Its heyday was the medieval period, when "withouten" appeared regularly in English texts alongside the shorter "without." The longer form was pushed out of common use by the simpler "without," which won out as the standard preposition. Today "withouten" survives mainly in archaic or deliberately old-fashioned writing, where it gives a sense of antiquity.