foreday
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English *foreday (attested only in plural foredais), equivalent to fore- + day.
Noun
editforeday (plural foredays)
- (in the plural, chiefly poetic, archaic) Past or former days
- 1847 [c. 1200], Frederic Madden, Layamon's Brut, Or Chronicle of Britain, translation of original by Layamon:
- This same token should be of Luces the emperor, and of the Senators [of Rome], who with him came from Rome [thither]; ' and in the same wise, they there gan fall;' what Merlin in foredays said, all they it found there, as they did ere, and subsequently well everywhere; ere Arthur were born, Merlin it all [all it is] predicted.
- 1897, Dugald Ferguson, Poems of the Heart, page 79:
- When the English horsemen shivered
On the foredays' glorious strife,
By his spearmen, and De Clifford
Yielded both the wreath and life.
- 2016, David Udo, “The Last Days”, in The Ripples:
- We bend our knees to the ground
Seeking refuge from the One on High
To redeem us from the
Prophesies of the fore-days
Consigning these daysafter
The last days, as the evil days.
- (dialectal) The earlier part of the day; the morning or early afternoon.
Synonyms
edit- (past days): foretime, yestertide; see also Thesaurus:the past
- (morning): forenoon, morn; see also Thesaurus:morning
- (early afternoon): undermeal, undertide; see also Thesaurus:afternoon