Things that happened in the past that are over and done with; used in the phrase 'let bygones be bygones,' meaning forget past conflicts.
From 'by' (near, alongside) + 'gone' (past). Middle English 'bygone' literally meant 'things that have gone by' or 'past events.'
The phrase 'let bygones be bygones' became so popular because it's deeply human: we invented a special word (not just 'the past') to capture that idea that some things deserve to be *forgotten*, not just remembered.
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