forestall

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English forstallen (“to ambush, to intercept”),^[2][3][4] from the noun forstal,^[2][4][5] inherited from Old English foresteall (“an ambush, a waylaying; hindrance of justice”).^{[6][7][8][3][9]} The Old English noun is a compound of fore- (“before”) and steall (“standing place, position”),^[7][6][2][8] the source of stall,^[7][6] and so literally means a standing before someone.^[6][3] The OED takes the second element in the sense "position taken up", comparing forelay and forset,^[7] whereas Bosworth–Toller connected it with stellan (“to leap”) and glossed the noun as a leaping before.^[10] The verb is recorded earliest in Anglo-Latin, as Medieval Latin forestallō (“to forestall the market; to waylay”),^[11] and the OED compares Anglo-Norman forstaller, the source of the 13th-century agent noun forstallour.^[7][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old English noun appears about 1000 in Ælfric,^[2][7] whose homily says that the Jewish elders dreaded a foresteall by the people, a rescue of Jesus;^[10] it also meant an ambush or a hindrance of justice.^[12][6] The verb is first recorded of spoiling the trade of a market or fair, in Piers Plowman (1362),^[7][13] and Barnhart dates forstallen, to intercept goods before they reach the market, to before 1350.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In law the noun became the offence of waylaying someone on the highway, and also the right to try that offence, and it lasted in this sense until 1610.^[7][11][4] The verb grew up in the market: to forestall was to buy goods before they reached the public market, so as to raise the price, an indictable offence,^[7][14][6] and Weekley describes this as profiteering and food-hoarding.^[9] The physical senses followed, to lie in wait for someone (1413–1728) and to block a road or house with armed men (1528–1611).^[7] From these came the general idea of stopping a thing by getting there first: "hinder or prevent by anticipation" in Spenser (1579) and "act before, anticipate" in Greene (1589),^[7] with Etymonline dating the modern sense to the 1580s.^[6] Milton's Comus (1637) added the sense of dealing with something too soon, of meeting trouble halfway.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave "to anticipate; to take up beforehand" first, and then "to hinder by preoccupation or prevention".^[15] A separate noun, formed from fore- and stall, meant something placed in front: a horse's frontlet (1519), the front of a cart (1598) and, in dialect, the space before a farmhouse (1661).^[7][11]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – noun, an ambush, a waylaying or a rescue, in Ælfric.^[2][7]
• 1362 – verb, to spoil the trade of a fair or market by buying up goods beforehand.^[7]
• 1413 – to lie in wait for or intercept a person (obsolete by 1728).^[7]
• 1467 – to buy up goods privately before they reach the market.^[7]
• 1519 – noun, a horse's frontlet.^[7]
• 1528 – to block a road or entrance by armed force (obsolete by 1611).^[7]
• 1579 – to hinder or prevent by anticipation, in Spenser.^[7]
• 1589 – to act before, to anticipate, in Greene.^[7]
• 1637 – to deal with something before the due time, in Milton's Comus.^[7]
• 1661 – noun, in dialect, the space in front of a farmhouse.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prevent or hinder something by acting in advance: A quick apology forestalled the argument.^[4][7][11]
2. To get ahead of someone or something; to anticipate: She forestalled her critics by publishing the figures herself.^[4][7][11]
3. To think of or deal with something before the proper time.^[4][7][11]
4. (historical) To buy up goods before they reach the market, so as to raise the price.^[11][7][14]
5. (archaic) To lie in wait for or intercept someone, especially on the road.^[4][7][11]

Noun

1. A piece of armour or a frontlet for a horse's face.^[11][7][4]
2. (dialect) The space in front of a farmhouse, or the way to it from the road.^[7][11]
3. (obsolete, Old English–1610) In old English law, the offence of waylaying someone on the highway.^[7][11][4]

Word family

• forestaller
• forestallment
• unforestalled

Related words

• fore-
• stall

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
13. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.