The story
- Old English · inherited fromtōforan“before”
- Middle English · inherited fromheretoforn
- English todayheretofore
From Middle English heretoforn, equivalent to here (“here”) + toforn (“before”), from Old English tōforan (“before”). More at here, tofore.
Words from the same roots
Old Englishtōforan all →
tofore
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.