fornigh

F4O1R1N1I1G2H4
Northumbria/vɑː.naɪ/

adverb

Very near

“It'll be fornigh ten 'ear sin then'”

OriginMiddle English forneh ← Old English fornēah →
Scrabble 14
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

adverbfornigh (comparative more fornigh, superlative most fornigh)

comparative more fornigh · superlative most fornigh

  1. dialectalVery near
  2. dialectalVery nearly; almost.

    It'll be fornigh ten 'ear sin then'

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
almostapproximatelyclose togive or takejust aboutlooselymore or lessplus or minusroughlysomewell-nigh

Origin

  1. Old Englishfornēah“very nearly, almost, about”
  2. Middle Englishforneh
  3. Englishfornigh

From Middle English forneh, forneah, from Old English fornēah (“very nearly, almost, about”), equivalent to for- + nigh. Compare similarly formed German beinah, Dutch bijna, both meaning “almost”.

More words from Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

fornigh. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fornigh

MLA

“fornigh.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fornigh. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fornigh,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fornigh.

Source: fornigh on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.