Dictionary

forelast en · ADJ

Etymology

From fore- + last. In some instances of more recent use, perhaps also a calque of German vorletzte or Dutch voorlaatst.

Meanings

1. (nonstandard, not-comparable, possibly, rare) Next to last, second to last.
   • The second statement is a special case of the forelast, and the forelast one follows from the last, whose proof is obvious[…] 2012 [1992], Konrad Jacobs, Discrete Stochastics, Springer Basel AG, →ISBN, page 36:
   • when the blight came on the crop the summer forelast he would not help us. 2003 [2002], Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Orlando: Harcourt, →ISBN, page 270:
   • The only difference between the 12 song books selected, which is at all worth mentioning, is that Aiken, Gantvoort, Jepson, Ripley, Zeiner have in the forelast bar—[sheet music] whereas[…] 1909, Oscar Sonneck, compiler, Report on the "Star-Spangled Banner", "Hail Columbia", "America", "Yankee Doodle", Washington: Government Printing Office, page 73:
   • [T]he #92;dot#123;V#125;#95;#123;O#95;2#125; increased continuously until the end of the exercise test and the values collected during the forelast minute are 95% of the maximal values during the last minute of the text. 2012 [1973], J.M.R. Detry, Exercise Testing and Training in Coronary Heart Disease, Springer Netherlands, →ISBN, page 44:
   • Certain disyllables, being both Nouns and Verbs, are distinguished by the Accent: the Verb having it in the last, and the Noun in the fore-last[…] 1633, Charles Butler, The English Grammar, Oxford, page 57, spelling modernized:

Forms

Synonyms

penultimate