always
Part of speech: adv
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?
Proto-Indo-European *h₂elnós
Proto-Germanic *allaz
Proto-West Germanic *all
Old English eall
Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ-der.
Proto-Germanic *wegaz
Proto-West Germanic *weg
Old English weġ
Old English ealneġ
Middle English alwey
Proto-Germanic *-as
Proto-West Germanic *-as
Old English -es
Middle English -es
Middle English alweyes
English always
From Middle English alweyes, alwayes, alweys, a variant of Middle English alwey, alway (“always”), from Old English ealneġ, ealne weġ (“always, perpetually”, literally “all the way, all the while, continuously”), from ealne + weġ (accusative case), equivalent to alway + -s. Cognate with Scots always (“always”), Low German allerwegens (“very often”, literally “all ways'”). More at all, way.
Base: alway
Affixes: -s
Inflected forms:
form: alwayes
pos: adv
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: alwayz
pos: adv
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: alwayez
pos: adv
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: allus
pos: adv
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
form: alwayes
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: alwayz
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: alwayez
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: allus
pos: noun
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
Senses:
gloss: At all times; throughout all time; since the beginning.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: God is always the same.
Green has always been my favorite color. I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember.
Airplanes did not always exist as a form of transportation.
Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
gloss: Constantly during a certain period, or regularly at stated intervals (opposed to sometimes or occasionally).
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: In this street, the shops always close during lunchtime.
His liveries are black,—his carriage is black,—he always rides a black galloway,—and, faith, if he ever marry again, I think he will show his respect to the sainted Maria by marrying a black woman.
They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties ; and his expectations has waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay,[…].
The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.
She used to always talk about how she wished she had time to write all day, but now she had the time, she never even went near the typewriter.
gloss: if necessary, or if there is no better option; in any event.
pos: adv
tags: informal
not-comparable
examples: I thought I could always go back to work.
pos: noun
tags: empty-gloss
informal
no-gloss
examples: I am her always and she is my always and that’s the whole trouble. For two years I tried to make her pregnant.
What we saw was cute-'n'-cuddly Willow, takin' care of her girl and spouting nauseating platitudes like "You're my always."
“Same with me. I love Gideon. He’s my always, but as far as true friendships go,” she cleared her throat, “I’ve never met three people I click with better.”
He is my everything too. He’s my always too.
Every once in a while Cass took off the wide gold band he’d slipped on her finger and read the inscription: My everything and my always. My Chesapeake bride.
When performed as a cycle, the songs convey this loss all the more strongly, not just as individual compositions touched by melancholy, but as a coherent conception, one where the longed-for "always" of the first song, "Villanelle," becomes unattainable in the last one, "L'île inconnue." Berlioz' rapturous, idealistic love for Harriet had faded - the breeze had blown his ship on a course far from one leading to the "always" of his youthful dreams.
Antonyms: never
Related words: frequency
Derived words: alwaysness
Translations: