erewhile

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

ere +‎ while

Adverb

erewhile (not comparable)

  1. (archaic or poetic) Some time ago; beforehand; formerly.
    • 1595, Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream:
      I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
    • 1600s, Andrew Marvell A Garden:
      She runs you through, nor asks the word.
      O thou, that dear and happy Isle,
      The garden of the world erewhile,
      Thou Paradise of the four seas
      Which Heaven planted us to please,
    • 1800s, Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Flâneur:
      The dame sans merci's broken strain,
      Whom I erewhile, perchance, have known,
      When Orleans filled the Bourbon throne,
      A siren singing by the Seine.
    • 1886-88, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night:
      Quoth he to me, "Thou shalt fare with me to Cairo where dwelleth a friend of mine and to him will I give thee, for erewhile I promised him that on this voyage I would secure for him a fair woman for handmaid."

Synonyms

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