Etymologically
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ago

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /əˈɡəʊ/, US /əˈɡoʊ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ago, short for agon, the past participle of the Middle English verb agon (“to pass away, go by”),[2][3][4] inherited from Old English āgān (“to go away, (of time) pass”),[2][5] formed from the perfective or intensive prefix ā- and gān (“to go”).[2][6][3] So it originally meant “gone”.[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gone by, past, of a period of time: about 1314.[8][9] The Old English verb āgān is recorded about 897 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[9]

Semantic evolution

Ago began as an adjective qualifying a noun of time, as in an hour ago.[7] It always follows its noun, and so it came to be understood as an adverb.[7][8] The adverb “in the past”, as in long ago, is recorded from the late 14th century,[2][8] and Chaucer also has yore ago.[8] The verb itself, in the senses “to go away” and “of time, to pass”, died out by the late 17th century.[7] The longer form agone, as in Shakespeare's “an hour agone” (Twelfth Night), survives only in dialect and archaic use.[7][2][4]

Timeline

  • c. 897 – Old English āgān (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).[9]
  • c. 1314 – adjective, gone by.[8]
  • c. 1366 – long ago.[8]
  • late 17th century – the verb ago last recorded.[7]

Modern meaning

Adverb

  1. Before the present time; in the past: two years ago.
  2. Gone by; past: long ago.

Word family

  • long ago
  • go
  • agone
  • gone
  • bygone

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology