Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

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for-

  • prefix
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Grammar
for-, is used in composition in Anglo-Saxon exactly as the English for: it often deteriorates, or gives an opposite sense, or gives strength to the words before which it is placed; in which case it may be compared with Gothic fra-, Dutch and German ver- [different from the Dutch voor, and German vor]. Forbeódan to forbid; fordéman to condemn; forcúþ perverse, corrupt; fordón to destroy, to do for. — Sometimes fór denotes an increase of the signification of the word before which it is placed, and is then generally to be in English very; valde, as fó;r-eáde very easily,
  • Homl. Th. ii. 138, 35
: fór-oft very often,
  • Bd. de nat. rerum
    • ;
  • Wrt. popl. science 11, 8
    • ;
  • Lchdm. iii. 256, 16.
For- and fór-, or fóre- are often confounded, though they are very different in meaning; as forseón [Flem. versien] to overlook, despise; fór- or fóreseón [Flem. veursien] to foresee. — If a word, having for, fór or fóre prefixed, cannot be found under for-, fór- or fóre-, it must be sought under the simple term, and the sense of the preposition added; thus, fór- or fóre-sendan is from sendan to send, and fór-, fóre before, to send before, etc. [On the vowel in for, fore, see remark in the preface.]
Wright's OE grammar
§559; §649;
Linked entries
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Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “for-.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/11165.

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  • for-, prefix

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