Forleft

/fɔrˈlɛft/ adjective

Definition

Archaic past tense and past participle of forleave; having been abandoned or left behind.

Etymology

Regular past tense formation of 'forleave,' following the pattern of English strong verbs. The vowel shift from 'leave' to 'left' is irregular, inherited from Old English conjugation patterns.

Kelly Says

English has tons of irregular verbs inherited from Old English like this—'leave/left' and 'forleave/forleft'—and most of our most common verbs follow these ancient 'strong verb' patterns because we use them so frequently we never regularized them.

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