Archaic or dialect term meaning to surprise, overtake suddenly, or catch unprepared; to seize or capture.
From Old English for- (completely, suddenly) + prise (to take or seize, related to 'pry'). The prefix intensified the sense of sudden, unexpected seizure, common in Middle English narratives.
'Forprise' is linguistically the ancestor of modern 'surprised'—it originally meant 'to be seized suddenly,' and surprise was literally about being taken by force, not just unexpected events.
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