gone en · ADJ · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- gôn (General-American)
- /ɡɔːn/ (Australia, Multicultural-London-English, Received-Pronunciation, archaic)
- gŏn (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ɡɑn/ (New-York-City, cot-caught-merger, traditional)
- gŏn (New-York-City, cot-caught-merger, traditional)
- /ɡɔn/ (General-American)
- /ɡɒn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (US) audio
Etymology
From Middle English gon, igon, gan, ȝegan, from Old English gān, ġegān, from Proto-Germanic *gānaz (“gone”), past participle of *gāną (“to go”). Cognate with West Germanic Scots gane (“gone”), West Frisian gien (“gone”), Low German gahn (“gone”), and Dutch gegaan (“gone”).
Meanings
-
Away, having left.
Are they gone already?
-
No longer existing, having passed.
All the little shops that used to be here are now gone.
All hopes for a truce are gone.
The days of my youth are gone.
All the love in the world can't be gone / All the need to be loved can't be wrong / All the records are playing and my heart keeps saying / "Boogie Wonderland, Wonderland"
1979, Earth, Wind & Fire, “Boogie Wonderland”, in I Am:
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Used up.
If the milk is all gone, we'll drink our coffee black.
I'm afraid all the coffee is gone.
-
Broken, failed.
The bulb is gone. Can you put a new one in?
The car isn't driveable — the steering is gone.
-
Dead.
Dust, that a breath could blow aside, yet that was once, like ourselves, animate with hope, passion, and sorrow, is below; around are the vain memorials of human grief and human pride; yet all alike dedicated to the gone.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Marriage”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 221:
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Doomed, done for.
Have you seen the company's revenue? It's through the floor. They're gone.
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(colloquial) Not fully aware of one's surroundings, often through intoxication or mental decline.
[S]he put on a kind of sing-song voice whenever she was pissed, it was one of the signs that she was really gone[…].
1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section III, page 28:Don't bother trying to understand what Grandma says; she's gone.
-
(slang) Infatuated; in love (+ on, for, in).
But he was pleased and happy and flattered. She was evidently frightfully gone on him.
1915, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 35, in Of Human Bondage, Vintage, published 2000:I am, of course, ‘gone’ for you.
1902, Henry James, The Wings of the Dove:
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(US, dated, informal) Excellent, wonderful; crazy.
“All right, all right, don’t drop your gold all over the place. I have found the gonest little girl in the world and I am going straight to the Lion’s Den with her tonight.”
1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 11, in On the Road, London: Penguin Books, published 1976, →ISBN, part 1, page 61:Dad, I want to be a jock. All a jock needs is some hep patter and a real gone image. Now, they just don't teach that jazz in college.
1975, Garry Marshall et al., “Richie's Flip Side”, in Happy Days, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard):It was a group of real gone cats.
-
(archaic) Ago (used post-positionally).
Six nights gone, your brother fell upon my uncle Stafford, encamped with his host at a village called Oxcross not three days ride from Casterly Rock.
1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 491:
- (US) Weak; faint; feeling a sense of goneness.
- Of an arrow: wide of the mark.
-
Used with a duration to indicate for how long a process has been developing, an action has been performed or a state has persisted; especially, pregnant.
She’s three months gone
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| goner | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| gonest | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| further gone | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| farther gone | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| farthest gone | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| furthest gone | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Translations (28)
fi poissa (away, having left) · nl op (used up) · pt ir-se (away, having left) · eo irinta (away, having left) · la abiisse (away, having left) · fr parti (away, having left) · ca anat (away, having left) · eo for (no longer existing) · de alle (used up) · es (él) ya no está (no longer existing) · sv borta (away, having left) · it andarsene (away, having left) · eo foririnta (away, having left) · de weg (away, having left) · es ido (away, having left) · de aufgebraucht (used up) · sq ikur (away, having left) · ga ar shiúl (away, having left) · nl weg (away, having left) · grc φροῦδος (away, having left) · es (él) se murió (no longer existing) · hu eltűnt (away, having left) · es (él) ha muerto (no longer existing) · grc οἰχόμενος (away, having left) · sa गत (away, having left) · cic taha (used up) · de vorbei (no longer existing) · de weg (no longer existing)