English

Prefix

for-

1. (no longer productive) Meaning "far", "away"; "from", "out" e.g. forbid, forget, forsay; forbear, fordeem.
2. (no longer productive) Meaning "completely", "to the fullest extent" e.g. forbreak; superseded by combinations with "up" in senses where no upward movement is involved, e.g. forgive = give up (one's offenses), forgather = "gather up", forbeat = "beat up", etc.
3. (dialectal) Very; excessively.

   forolded ‎(“very old”)

   fornigh ‎(“very near”)

Derived terms

See also

• fore-

French

Alternative forms

• four-, fre-

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French for-, partially from Late Latin forīs, taken as an adaptation of the Late Latin adverb forīs ‎(“outdoors, outside”) and used to calque Frankish words prefixed by *fur- ‎(“for-”) (compare Late Latin foris facere ‎(“to do wrong”) = Old High German firwirken ‎(“to do wrong”), Late Latin forisfactus ‎(“evil deed”) = Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌷𐍄𐍃 ‎(frawaurhts, “evil deed”), Late Latin foris consiliare ‎(“to mislead”) = Old High German firleitan ‎(“to mislead”), etc.), and partially continuing from Proto-Germanic *fur-, *fer-, *fra- ‎(“away, from, off”), from Proto-Indo-European *pro-, *per-, *pr-. See for-. Related to French fors ‎(“except”), French hors ‎(“outside”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔʁ/

Prefix

for-

1. (nonproductive) prefix used to express error, exclusion, or inadequacy.

Related terms

Icelandic

Prefix

for-

1. previous, before, first, pre-

   for- + ‎síða ‎(“page”) → ‎forsíða ‎(“front page”)

2. (emphatic) extremely
3. negative meaning

Synonyms

• (before): fyrir-

Derived terms

Irish

Alternative forms

• ur-

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *uɸor-.

Prefix

for-

1. over, superior, super-
2. outer, external
3. great, extreme

Derived terms

Mutation

References

• "for-" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Norwegian Bokmål

Prefix

for-

1. previous, before, first, pre-

   for- + side ‎(“page”) — forside ‎(“front page”)

2. (emphatic) extremely
3. negative meaning

Derived terms

Synonyms

• (before): fore-

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *fer-, *fur-, *fra- ‎(“away, far”), from Proto-Indo-European *pro-, *per-, *pr- with a variety of meanings including ‘rejection, destruction, prohibition’. Cognate with Old Frisian for-, Old Saxon far-, for-, Dutch ver-, Old High German fir-, far- (German ver-), and, outside Germanic, with Ancient Greek περί ‎(perí), Latin per-, Old Church Slavonic пре- ‎(pre-) (Russian пере- ‎(pere-)).

Pronunciation

Prefix

for-

1. forming verbs from verbs with various senses especially ‘wrongly, away from, astray, abstention, prohibition, perversion, destruction’

   forwyrcan ‎(“to do wrong, sin”)

   forstandan ‎(“to defend, protect, stand for”)

   forweorpan ‎(“to throw away, cast away, reject”)

   forstelan ‎(“to steal away, deprive”)

   fordēman ‎(“to condemn”)

   forlǣdan ‎(“to mislead”)

2. used to create intensified adjectives and verbs from other adjectives and verbs, with the sense of completely or fully. Compare Modern English use of up

   forblāwan ‎(“to blow up, inflate”)

   forstoppian ‎(“to stop up, block, occlude”)

   forworen ‎(“decayed, decrepit”)

   forbrocen ‎(“broken down, broken up”)

3. very

   forlȳtel ‎(“very little”)

Derived terms

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *uɸor-. Prefix form of for.

Prefix

for-

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Derived terms

Old Saxon

Prefix

for-

1. Alternative form of far-