Past tense of avail: to make use of something; to be of help or benefit to someone.
From Old French 'availlir,' combining 'a-' (to) and 'valloir' (to be strong/worth), derived from Latin 'valere.' The -ed ending marks simple past tense in regular verbs.
The phrase 'it availed nothing' appears throughout English literature to express futility—it's particularly common in biblical and classical translations, giving it an almost prophetic, doom-laden quality.
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