View source for For- - fore-

The [[prefix]]es '''for-''' and '''fore-''' are confused, and have been confused since the [[Old English]] period. Occasionally it is important to distinguish the two spellings, as in [[forego - forgo]] and [[forbear - forebear]]. With other words, the variation may be permissible, often because there is no ambiguity - only one meaning exists. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that '''for-''' (without the '-e') has several possible meanings. '''Fore-''' has only one central meaning.
*'''For-''' is the descendant of three separate Old [[Germanic]] [[prefix]]es ''fer-'', ''fra-'' and ''fur-''). The uses and meanings  of these seem always to have been blurred. In [[Present-day English]], the main meanings, with some examples, are:
**'away' or 'off'. This use is largely obsolete, although it survives to some extent in 'to '''for'''give', which was originally 'to remit [''or'' give '''away''') a debt [of money]', and came to be 'to give away (''or'' up) one's right to revenge [for a wrong committed]'.
**Prohibition, as in ''''for'''bid', or 'to order <u>not</u> to do something', and the [[archaic]] '''for(e)fend''', which means much the same. [[Shakespeare]] not uncommonly uses the formulas "Heaven forfend", meaning 'May [the Deity] prevent ''or'' forbid [something ill-omened from happening]".
**Abstaining from something (deliberately) as in '[[forbear - forebear|'''for'''bear]]' and ''''for'''sake', or neglecting to do something, as in ''''for'''get' ('to lose one's memory of').
**A sense almost entirely obsolete since [[Early Modern English]] of 'wrongly', or 'mistakenly', often with overtones of bad things happening; 'being overpowered'; being 'exhausted' or 'tired out'; and with a sense of being very complete in effect. (''''For'''bruised' meant 'bruised all over'.)
**With [[adjective]]s, the general force of '''for-''' is to intensify. ''''for'''lorn' (from ''lorn'', the [[-ed participle]] of a [[Middle English]] form of 'to lose') means 'to be completely lost', 'abandoned' or 'desolate'.
*'''Fore-''', as it looks, is connected with 'be'''fore'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>. It has the general sense of 'in front of', either in time or in space. 
**The [[forehead (pronunciation)|forehead]] is in the front of the skull - the face between the eyebrows and the hair; the [[forename]] is that part of a person's name usually preceding the [[surname]] in British culture.
**In a sexist culture, '''fore'''fathers are ancestors, and a bad omen may '''fore'''shadow some catastrophe - which a prophet may '''fore'''tell, or 'predict': sometimes, a person may '''fore'''see some coming events, either in an example of mystical, supernatural vision, or in a more rational effort of reasoned [[foresight|'''fore'''sight]]. If the catastrophe is a flood or a hurricane, warning may have been given in a weather '''fore'''cast. A golfer may '''fore'''warn others on the course that a ball is coming their way (by shouting "'''Fore'''!")
**A '''fore'''court is the open space '''in front of''' a building, such as a petrol station. In ships, the '''fore'''mast is the mast nearest the front of the vessel, and the '''fore'''deck stretches from around there to the bow.
**In Scotland, as in the [[Royal Navy]], the ''''fore'''noon' is the term, more precise than 'morning', for that period of the day which ends at 12:00. (Ashore, 'Morning' ends elastically - usually at the time of the 'mid-day meal', which may not be taken at mid-day: nowadays, it is more usually around 12:30 or 1:00. In naval terms, even more precisely, the '''morning watch''' is from 04:00 to 08:00 and the '''forenoon watch''' from 08:00 to 12:00.) 

::The confusion between these two can be illustrated by the common [[adverb]] and [[adjective]] '''[[forward - forwards]]''', which is spelled without the '-e-' although demonstrably derived from the [[prefix]] originally spelled '''for<big>e</big>'''; and see also [[forbear - forebear]].

[[category:etymology]][[category:prefixes]][[category:clarification of meanings]][[category:words beginning for-]]