ere

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English er, also ar and or,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ǣr (“soon, early; before, formerly”), an adverb, conjunction and preposition.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The Old English word was in origin a comparative adverb,^[9][10] from Proto-Germanic *airiz (“earlier”), the comparative of *airi (“early”).^[5][7][11] Its cognates are Old Frisian ēr, Old Saxon ēr and Old High German ēr, whence Dutch eer and German eher (“earlier”), with ehe;^[4][7] the positive survives in Old Norse ár (“early”) and Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂 (air, “early”), the comparative in 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌹𐍃 (airis, “earlier”).^[4][5][11] Kroonen takes the Germanic adverb to be identical to Ancient Greek ἦρι (êri, “early, in the morning”), the locative of an old noun for "day" also seen in Avestan ayarə (“day”).^[12][3] Klein adds ἠέριος (ēérios, “early, at daybreak”) and ἄριστον (áriston, “breakfast”),^[9][11] and Etymonline traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *ayer- (“day, morning”),^[5] but the OED only reports that some have proposed a link with the Greek word.^[4] The Old English superlative ǣrest gave erst and erstwhile.^[5][13][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an Old English adverb and conjunction, "before", about 725 in Beowulf,^[13][14] as in ǣr hie to setle gong, "ere she went to her seat";^[8] the preposition is recorded before 830.^[13] The Old English adverb also meant "early", "sooner" and "formerly".^[4][8] The Middle English form er appears probably before 1200,^[13] and the MED's first record of the preposition is in the Peterborough Chronicle, in an entry for 1070 copied about 1121: ær dæg, before daybreak.^[2] Etymonline dates the preposition to about 1200.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old English used the word as an adverb in several senses, most of them now lost: "sooner, earlier" lasted until 1650, "rather, in preference" from about 1175 to 1536, "formerly, before" until 1647 and "first" until 1325.^[4] The positive sense "early, soon" has survived only in Scotland since the 15th century, in the forms air and ear;^[4][3] the English Dialect Dictionary records the phrase ear and late, early and late.^[15] As a preposition it also meant "in preference to", from 1377 in Langland's Piers Plowman.^[4] The conjunction was often strengthened, ere ever from about 1400 in Pearl;^[4] the Middle English forms ar and or come partly from ár and partly from the loss of stress,^[4] and or survives in the biblical or ever ("or ever they came at the bottom of the den", Daniel 6:24).^[10] Johnson (1755) complained that the word was sometimes written e'er, as if it came from ever.^[16] It is now archaic or poetic.^[17][7][4] In Irish, Surrey, Hampshire and Wiltshire speech the EDD records a form ere or ar with the sense "ever, at all".^[15]

Timeline

• c. 725 – adverb and conjunction, before, in Beowulf.^[13][14]
• before 830 – preposition, before (in time).^[13]
• before 1200 – the Middle English form er.^[13]
• c. 1175 – adverb, sooner, rather (obsolete by 1536).^[4]
• 1377 – preposition, in preference to.^[4]
• c. 1400 – ere ever, before.^[4]
• 15th century – the positive sense early, soon, limited to Scots.^[4]
• 1650 – last record of the adverb sooner, earlier.^[4]

Meanings

Preposition

1. (archaic, literary) before (in time): ere nightfall.^[3][17][4]

Conjunction

1. (archaic, literary) Before; earlier than the time when: We must reach the ford ere the sun goes down.^[3][17][4]
2. (archaic) Sooner than; rather than: "I will be thrown into Etna … ere I will leave her" (Shakespeare).^[3][4]

Adverb

1. (chiefly Scottish) early; soon.^[3][4][15]

Word family

• early
• erenow
• erewhile
• erst
• erstwhile
• erelong

Related words

• or
• aristology

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c 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)
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins