Etymology

for-

Today it means: Forth: prefixed to verbs to indicate a direction of 'away', 'off', 'forth'. Full definition →

Middle English for- ← Old English for- ← Proto-Germanic *fra-
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for- · prefix1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*pro-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*fur-
  3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*fra-
  4. Old English · inherited fromfor-
  5. Middle English · inherited fromfor-
  6. English todayfor-

From Middle English for-, vor-, ver-, from Old English for-, fer-, fær-, fyr- (“far, away, completely”, prefix), from the merger of Proto-Germanic *fra- ("away, away from"; see fro, from) and Proto-Germanic *fur-, *far- (“through, completely, fully”), from Proto-Indo-European *pro-, *per-, *pr-. Cognate with Scots for-, West Frisian fer-, for-, Dutch ver-, German ver-, Swedish för-, Danish for-, Norwegian for-, Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰- (fra-), Latin pro-. More at for.

for- · prefix2

  1. Old English · inherited fromfor-
  2. English todayfor-

From Old English for-, which is identical with the preposition "for". In "Old English and Middle English it occurs frequently as a variant of fore- prefix, with the senses ‘before’, ‘in front’, ‘on behalf of’, etc.; cf. Old English for-, forecuman to come before, Middle English forganger and foreganger n."

for- · prefix3

"Occurring only in words adopted from French, as forcatch v., forfeit n., forprise n., represents Old French for-, fors-, identical with fors adv. (modern French hors) outside, out."

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishfor- all →

forbanforjudge

Proto-Germanic*fra- all →

freightfretforswallowforwarn

Proto-Indo-European*pro- all →

approachfretprotrudeopprobriumprothesis

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.