Meanings
plural forewinters
- The period immediately preceding or leading up to winter.
Anybody seeing him all that forewinter long going about the sadder verges of the city might have rightly wondered what his trade was, this refugee reprieved from the river and its fishes. Haunting the streets in a castoff peacoat.
2010, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, page 381 - The early part of winter.
The Early Winter, or Forewinter, period has a much less easily defined character, being dominated by alternations of progressive (W'ly or cyclonic) and blocked (anticyclonic) periods in Europe, […]
2013, H. H. Lamb, Climate: Present, Past and Future
Origin
From fore- + winter. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fóarwinter (“forewinter”), West Frisian foarwinter (“forewinter”), Dutch voorwinter (“forewinter”), German Vorwinter (“forewinter”), Danish forvinter (“forewinter”), Swedish förvinter (“forewinter”), Icelandic forvetur (“forewinter”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
forewinter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forewinter
“forewinter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forewinter. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forewinter,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forewinter.
Source: forewinter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.