forthwith

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English forthwith, formed from English forth + with.^[2][3][4][5] The OED, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary derive the adverb from the phrase forth with, "along with", the preposition being used absolutely or with its object left out.^[2][6][7] In early Middle English the phrase was forth mid,^[2] which Etymonline and Klein trace to Old English forð mid.^[3][8] The Oxford dictionaries take the adverb to be partly a shortening of the earlier forthwithal,^[9][10][11] recorded from about 1175 to 1548.^[2] The Middle English Dictionary compares forwith.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Along with, together with: about 1175, in the Ormulum, forþ wiþþ þe sawle, "along with the soul".^[7] Etymonline dates the preposition to about 1200,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1250–1300.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense "along with, at the same time" was only Middle English,^[11][9] and the OED's last record of it is from 1460.^[2] Chaucer's Parson still has it, of costly fur on gowns forth with the superfluitee of their length.^[7][12] Used alone, the word came to mean "immediately".^[2][9] Gower has this ten times,^[13] though the OED's first record of the sense is from a letter of J. Paston of 1461,^[2] and Etymonline dates the adverb to the early 14th century.^[3] Used for forwith, it could also mean "in front of, before".^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined the adverb as "immediately; without delay; at once; strait".^[14] Merriam-Webster Unabridged allows a looser reading, "within a reasonable time",^[4] and the New Oxford Dictionary of English notes that the word is especially used in official contexts.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – preposition, along with, in the Ormulum.^[7] The OED's first record of the phrase is from the Lambeth Homilies of the same date, and its last from 1460.^[2]
• before 1393 – adverb, at once, in Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[7] The OED's first record of the sense is from 1461, and Etymonline dates the adverb to the early 14th century.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – preposition, in front of or in the presence of, in Cleanness.^[7]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Immediately; at once, without delay: The tenants were told to leave the building forthwith.^{[16][6][4][2]}
2. With dispatch; within a reasonable time.^[4][17]
3. Immediately after an earlier event; thereupon.^[4][17]

Preposition

1. (obsolete, c. 1175–1460) Along with, together with.^[7][2][11]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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)
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam