different between before vs history

English

Alternative forms

• befo (pronunciation spelling)
• befo' (pronunciation spelling)

Etymology

From Middle English before, bifore (adverb and preposition), from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: b?fô?, IPA^(key): /b??f??/
• (General American) enPR: b?fôr?, b?fôr?, IPA^(key): /b??f??/, /bi?f??/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: b?f?r?, IPA^(key): /b??fo(?)?/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /b??fo?/
• Hyphenation: be?fore
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Preposition

before

1. Earlier than (in time).
2. In front of in space.

   • His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.

   • He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. […] But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again […] she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.
3. In the presence of.

   He performed before the troops in North Africa.

   He spoke before a joint session of Congress.

4. Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
   • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani

     If a suit be begun before an archdeacon […]

5. In store for, in the future of (someone).
6. In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.

7. At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.

Synonyms

• (earlier than in time): by, no later than, previous to, prior to, ere (obsolete)
• (in front of in space): ahead of, in front of
• (in front of according to an ordering system): ahead of

Antonyms

• (earlier than in time): after, later than
• (in front of in space): behind
• (in front of according to an ordering system): after

Translations

Adverb

before (not comparable)

1. At an earlier time.

2. In advance.
3. At the front end.
   • 1896, Hilaire Belloc, The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts, “The Elephant”:

     When people call this beast to mind,
     They marvel more and more
     At such a little tail behind,
     So LARGE a trunk before.

Synonyms

• (at an earlier time): previously
• (in advance): ahead
• (at the front end): in front

Antonyms

• (at an earlier time): after
• (at the front end): behind

Derived terms

• beforehand
• beforetime

Translations

Conjunction

before

1. In advance of the time when.

   • before this elaborate treatise can become of universal use and ornament to my native country, two points […] are absolutely necessary.
2. (informal) Rather or sooner than.

Synonyms

• (rather than): lest

Translations

References

• before at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

Anagrams

• borfee

English

Alternative forms

• historie (obsolete)
• hystory (nonstandard)
• hystorie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English historie, from Old French estoire, estorie (“chronicle, history, story”) (French histoire), from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ??????? (historí?, “learning through research”), from ??????? (historé?, “to research, inquire (and) record”), from ????? (híst?r, “the knowing, wise one”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Doublet of story and storey.

Attested in Middle English in 1393 by John Gower, Confessio Amantis, which was aimed at an educated audience familiar with French and Latin.

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?s?t(?)r?, h?s?tr?, IPA^(key): /?h?st(?)?i/, /?h?st(?)??/
• Hyphenation: his?to?ry, hist?ory

Noun

history (countable and uncountable, plural histories)

1. The aggregate of past events.

   Synonyms: background, past

2. The branch of knowledge that studies the past; the assessment of notable events.

3. (countable) A set of events involving an entity.
4. (countable) A record or narrative description of past events.

   Synonyms: account, chronicle, story, tale

5. (countable, medicine) A list of past and continuing medical conditions of an individual or family.

   Synonym: medical history

6. (countable, computing) A record of previous user events, especially of visited web pages in a browser.

   Synonym: log
7. (informal) Something that no longer exists or is no longer relevant.

8. (uncountable) Shared experience or interaction.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Pitcairn-Norfolk: histrei

Translations

Verb

history (third-person singular simple present histories, present participle historying, simple past and past participle historied)

1. (obsolete) To narrate or record.

References

Further reading

• history on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• history at OneLook Dictionary Search
• history in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "history" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 146.
• history in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Toryish, Troyish, roytish

Middle English

Noun

history

1. Alternative form of historie