The building blocks of English
Affixes
afore-
Before or previously.
Old English onforan, from on‑ (see a‑2) and foran, in front, in advance.
Words beginning with afore‑ are now archaic or formal and in some cases have been replaced by words or phrases employing before. Examples are aforehand, beforehand and aforetime, in former or past times. Aforementioned and aforesaid refer to a thing or person previously mentioned; aforethought, premeditation, now usually appears only in the formal legal term malice aforethought, the intention to kill or harm that distinguishes murder from accidental killing. Afore, as a free-standing word meaning ‘before’, is now only in dialect use.
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