before

• befo (pronunciation spelling)
• befo' (pronunciation spelling)

From Middle English before (adverb and preposition), from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bĭfôʹ, IPA^(key): /bɪˈfɔː/
• (General American) enPR: bəfôrʹ, bēfôrʹ, IPA^(key): /bəˈfɔɹ/, /biˈfɔɹ/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: bĭfōrʹ, IPA^(key): /bɪˈfo(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /bɪˈfoə/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧fore

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)

before

1. Earlier than (in time).

   I want this done before Monday.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.

2. In front of in space.

   He stood before me.

   We sat before the fire to warm ourselves.

   • Template:rfdatke

     His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.

   • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620:

     He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. […] But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again […] she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.

   • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

     The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

3. In the presence of.

   He performed before the troops in North Africa.

   He spoke before a joint session of Congress.

4. Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).

   The case laid before the panel aroused nothing but ridicule.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Ayliffe

     If a suit be begun before an archdeacon […]

5. In store for, in the future of (someone).
   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Carlyle

     The golden age […] is before us.

6. In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.

   In alphabetical order, "cat" comes before "dog", "canine" before feline".

7. At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.

   An entrepreneur puts market share and profit before quality, an amateur intrinsic qualities before economical considerations.

   • Bible, John i. 15

     He that cometh after me is preferred before me.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Samuel Johnson

     The eldest son is before the younger in succession.

• (earlier than in time): by, no later than, prior to
• (in front of in space): ahead of, in front of
• (in front of according to an ordering system): ahead of

• (earlier than in time): after, later than
• (in front of in space): behind
• (in front of according to an ordering system): after

before (not comparable)

1. At an earlier time.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 12, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

   I've never done this before.

2. In advance.
3. At the front end.
   • 1896, Hilaire Belloc, The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts, “The Elephant”:

     When people call this beast to mind,
     They marvel more and more
     At such a little tail behind,
     So LARGE a trunk before.

• (at an earlier time): previously
• (in advance): ahead
• (at the front end): in front

• (at an earlier time): after
• (at the front end): behind

• beforehand
• beforetime

before

1. In advance of the time when.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Jonathan Swift

     Before this treatise can become of use, two points are necessary.

   • 2011 November 11, Rory Houston, “Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland”, in RTE Sport:

     Stephen Ward then had to time his tackle excellently to deny Tarmo Kink as the Wolves winger slid the ball out of play before the Estonian could attempt to beat Given.

2. (informal) Rather or sooner than.

   I'll die before I'll tell you anything about it.

• (rather than): lest

• before at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

• borfee