for a short period of time; for some time.
From Old English 'ane hwile,' meaning 'one while' or 'one period.' The 'a-' is a reduced form of 'one,' and 'while' originally meant a period or stretch of time. Over centuries, this compound gradually merged into the single adverb we use today.
The word 'awhile' contains the ghost of the number 'one' hidden in its 'a-' prefix—the same 'a' appears in 'a cat' or 'an apple.' Language constantly compresses and fuses words together, which is why old texts look so different from how we write now.
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