before
Language: English
Part of speech: prep
Pronunciation: enpr: bĭfôʹ
ipa: /bɪˈfɔː/
enpr: bĭfôrʹ
enpr: bēfôrʹ
enpr: bəfôrʹ
ipa: /bɪˈfɔɹ/
ipa: /biˈfɔɹ/
ipa: /bəˈfɔɹ/
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
enpr: bĭfōrʹ
ipa: /bɪˈfo(ː)ɹ/
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
note: non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
ipa: /bɪˈfoə/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
Forms: form: befo
form: befo'
form: b4
form: be4
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English before /bifore, from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).
Senses: examples: text: I want this done before Monday.
text: We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
synonyms: by
no later than
previous to
prior to
ere
antonyms: after
later than
glosses: Earlier than (in time).
examples: text: He stood before me.
text: We sat before the fire to warm ourselves.
text: His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.[…]But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again[…]she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.
ref: 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:
text: The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
ref: 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
synonyms: ahead of
in front of
antonyms: behind
glosses: In front of in space.
examples: text: He performed before the troops in North Africa.
text: He spoke before a joint session of Congress.
glosses: In the presence of.
examples: text: The case laid before the panel aroused nothing but ridicule.
text: If a suit be begun before an archdeacon[…]
ref: 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani:
glosses: Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
examples: text: Your whole life is before you.
text: The golden age[…]is before us.
ref: 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “The Phœnix”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 164:
text: There is an Eternity behind thee as well as one before. Hast thou bewailed the aeons that passed without thee, who art so much afraid of the aeons that shall pass?
ref: 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 76:
glosses: In store for, in the future of (someone).
examples: text: In alphabetical order, "cat" comes before "dog", "canine" before feline".
synonyms: ahead of
antonyms: after
glosses: In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.
examples: text: An entrepreneur puts market share and profit before quality, and amateur intrinsic qualities before economical considerations.
text: He that cometh after me is preferred before me.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 1:15:
glosses: At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.