Before in time; previously; used in archaic or poetic English to mean 'in front of' or 'before'.
From Old English 'æforan,' combining 'æ-' (always, ever) with 'foran' (before, in front). It's been in English since at least the 10th century and represents one of the oldest ways to express temporal or spatial 'before' in the language.
Words like 'afore' reveal the deep time of English—it's been saying the same thing for over 1,000 years while most modern speakers have abandoned it, yet it lives on in phrases like 'afore-mentioned' and in folk songs, like time-traveling vocabulary that refuses to fully die.
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