Archaic or dialect term meaning worn out, exhausted, or aged; very old.
From Old English for- (completely, utterly) + old. This prefix combination intensified the meaning of 'old,' similar to how we might say 'very old' or 'ancient' today.
The prefix 'for-' in Old English was like an emphatic exclamation mark—it didn't just mean 'before,' it meant 'to the point of completion,' so 'for-old' literally means 'aged to the extreme.'
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