Meanings
- Indialiterarynot comparablelawFormer, previous.
“Scarcely had Alice reached her twentieth birthday, than she gave her erstwhile fiancée^([sic]) his formal congé.[…]”
1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Disappearance of Count Collini”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 20202 more examples
As an aftermath of the erstwhile competition between companies, 41 goods depots served the Liverpool and Birkenhead docks in 1923.
1964 November, P. F. Winding, “Re-shaping the LMR's North Western Line - 2”, in Modern Railways, page 343Other erstwhile stalwarts are also wavering. Southampton had two of the best full-backs in the league last season but Ryan Bertrand has been below par this season and Cédric Soares made an uncharacteristic lapse that led to Stoke’s winning goal in Southampton’s last outing.
2017 October 14, Paul Doyle, “Mauricio Pellegrino yet to find attacking solution for stuttering Southampton”, in the GuardianSynonyms: former, once, previous, quondam, onetime, antecedent, anterior, earlier
- not comparableproscribedRespected, honourable.
If you're for one of my erstwhile opponents, that's O.K. Just don't work too hard.
1999 November 1, Frank Bruni, quoting George W. Bush, “For Bush, an Adjustable Speech Of Tested Themes and Phrases”, in New York Times
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbFormerly; in the past.
adjectiveFormer, previous.
More synonyms by meaning
adverbat a previous time
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From erst (“first, formerly”) + while.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Cantonese 以前嘅, 過去嘅 /过去嘅
- 以前嘅 (ji⁵ cin⁴ ge³)former, previous
- 過去嘅 /过去嘅 (gwo³ heoi³ ge³)former, previous
Czech bývalý, někdejší
- bývalýformer, previous
- někdejšíformer, previous
Dutch voormalig, vroeger
- voormaligformer, previous
- vroegerformer, previous
- toenmaligformer, previous
Esperanto antaŭa
- antaŭaformer, previous
Finnish varhempi, entinen
- varhempiformer, previous
- entinenformer, previous
- aiempiformer, previous
French ancien, d'autrefois
- ancienformer, previous
- d'autrefoisformer, previous
German vormalig, ehemalig
- vormaligformer, previous
- ehemaligformer, previous
- früherformer, previous
Greek πρώην
- πρώην (próin)former, previous
Norwegian fordums
- fordumsformer, previous
Polish dawniej, kiedyś
- dawniejerstwhile
- kiedyśerstwhile
- niegdyśerstwhile
- ongiśerstwhile
- byłyformer, previous
- dawnyformer, previous
Portuguese anterior
- anteriorformer, previous
Russian было́й, пре́жний
- было́й (bylój)former, previous
- пре́жний (préžnij)former, previous
Swedish tidigare, föregående
- tidigareformer, previous
- föregåendeformer, previous
- förreformer, previous
- före dettaformer, previous
Ukrainian коли́шній
- коли́шній (kolýšnij)former, previous
Cite this entry
erstwhile. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/erstwhile
“erstwhile.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/erstwhile. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “erstwhile,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/erstwhile.
Source: erstwhile on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.