bygone

Etymology

It is formed from English by + gone, the past participle of go,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the adverb in the sense "past".^[4][7] It was first a northern and Scots word:^[8][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the Scots form Middle English bygane, with gane a variant of the past participle of gon (“to go”),^[9] and the Middle English Dictionary records the participle bī-gōn (“past, gone by”), northern bīgān.^[10] Etymonline compares the similar construction of aforesaid.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

That has gone by, past; former: 1424, in the Scottish Acts of James I.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century,^[3] and the Middle English Dictionary quotes of tyme begane, of past time, in a letter from Coldingham of 1442–3.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Johnson called it "a Scotch word", but Shakespeare had already used it in the sense "past".^[2] From before 1522, in Gavin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid, it was used of people for "dead, departed".^[2][6] The noun came in 1568, in a letter of Mary Queen of Scots, as a plural for things past, especially past offences,^[2][9] and the Scottish plural sense "arrears" followed by about 1650;^[2][6] Hoad notes that the plural noun was originally Scots and hardly naturalised in England before the 18th century.^[4] The phrase let bygones be bygones, forgive and forget, is recorded from 1636, in the letters of Samuel Rutherford.^[2][6] In the 19th century the adjective took on the sense "belonging to past times, outmoded" (1869, in Dickens),^[2][6] and the noun the sense of a person or thing of the past, especially an old domestic or industrial object of a kind no longer used (1857).^[2][6] In Scots and northern English dialect the noun also meant the past, and in the by-gaun meant in passing, by the way.^[11]

Timeline

• 1424 – adjective, past, former.^[2]
• before 1522 – of people, dead, departed.^[2]
• 1568 – noun, plural, things past, especially past offences.^[2][9]
• 1636 – let bygones be bygones.^[2]
• c. 1650 – plural noun, arrears (chiefly Scots).^[2][6]
• 1857 – a person or thing of the past, an obsolete artefact.^[2]
• 1869 – belonging to past times.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to an earlier time; past or former: the fashions of a bygone era.^[9][12][2]
2. Out of date; outmoded or antiquated.^[9][6]
3. (archaic) No longer living; dead or extinct.^[9][6][2]

Noun

1. Something past, especially a past grievance or offence, usually in the plural.^[9][2][6]
2. let bygones be bygones: to forgive and forget past quarrels.^[6][2]
3. A person or thing belonging to the past; especially an old object of a kind no longer in use.^[9][2][6]
4. (chiefly Scottish) Overdue payments; arrears, in the plural.^[6][2][4]

Related words

• gone
• by
• foregone

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins