beforetime en · ADV
Pronunciation
- /bɪˈfɔːtʌɪm/ (UK)
Etymology
From before + time.
Meanings
-
(archaic, not-comparable) Formerly, previously.
There was a certayne man called Simon, which beforetyme in the same cite, used witchecrafte and bewithched the people, sayinge that he was a man that coulde do greate thinges.
1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:Thou shalt see Gold tarnished, and the grey above the green And as the thing thou seest thy face shall be And no more as the thing beforetime seen.
1866, Algernon Charles Swinburne, “A Ballad of Burdens”, in Poems and Ballads, London: J. C. Hotten, page 145, lines 33–36: