A variant spelling of 'forbore,' the past tense of forbear, meaning to refrain from or tolerate.
Middle English variant of 'forbore,' from Old English 'forbēran' (to endure beforehand). The double 'b' appears in some medieval manuscripts due to scribal conventions.
Medieval scribes would sometimes double consonants for mysterious reasons—sometimes it indicated a short vowel before it, sometimes it was just how they were trained, making historical spelling like a linguistic puzzle.
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