since

From Middle English syns, synnes, contraction of earlier sithens, sithence, from sithen (“after, since”) ( + -s, adverbial genitive suffix), from Old English sīþþan, from the phrase sīþ þǣm (“after/since that (time)”), from sīþ (“since, after”) + þǣm dative singular of þæt. Cognate with Dutch sinds (“since”), German seit (“since”), Danish siden (“since”), Icelandic síðan (“since”) Scots syne (“since”).

(both postposition) ᠴᡳ (ci) (colloquial) ᡩᡝᡵᡳ (deri)

since Adam was an oakum boy in Chatham Dockyard

I have known her since last year.

Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.

2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:

Since the 1980s, computers have had increasing roles in all aspects of human life—including an involvement in criminal acts.

2013 September-October, Simson Garfinkel, “Digital Forensics”, in American Scientist:

From: referring to a period of time ending in the present and defining it by the point in time at which it started, or the period in which its starting point occurred.

Continuously during that period of time.

"Mujtahidd" has attracted almost 300,000 followers since the end of last year, when he began posting scandalous claims about the Saudi elite.

2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian:

At certain points during that period of time.


came

Came Christmas by which, at the outset, everybody knew it would be over, and it was not over. Came June, 1915, concerning which, at the outset, he had joined with Mr. Fortune, Twyning and Harold in laughter at his own grotesque idea of the war lasting to the dramatic effect of a culminating battle on the centenary of Waterloo, and the war had lasted, and was still lasting.

1921, Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson, If Winter Comes, page 256:

Used to indicate that the following event, period, or change in state occurred in the past, after a time of waiting, enduring, or anticipation

by

following event etc, in the past after waiting

when [event, period, change in state] came/arrived


an

From the Old English an, on (preposition).

I was only going twenty miles an hour.

(use the inessive case for the word after)


ben

From Middle English ben, bene, variation of bin, binne (“within”), from Old English binnan (“within, in, inside of, into”), equivalent to be- + in.

der

And he was waving to me to creep in, so I just did and then just to skip ben the front and then in the lobby.

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 32:


gone

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”).

You'd better hurry up, it's gone four o'clock.

(British, informal) Past, after, later than (a time).

you never know what you've got till it's gone


against

Formed from Middle English ayenes, agenes, againes (“in opposition to”), a southern variant of agen, or directly from again, either way with adverbial genitive singular ending -es; the parasitic -t was added circa 1350, probably by confusion with the superlative ending -est. By surface analysis, again + -st (excrescent ending).

surf

a house divided against itself cannot stand

It is hard work to swim against the current.

The rain pounds against the window.

Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.

1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

In physical opposition to; in collision with.

The ladder was leaning against the wall.

The puppy rested its head against a paw.

The kennel was put against the back wall.

In physical contact with, so as to abut or be supported by.

A row of trees stood against a fence.

We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.[…]As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

The giant was silhouetted against the door.

He stands out against his classmates.

This report sets out the risks against the benefits.

The Tigers will play against the Bears this weekend.

“[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

The breakthrough came through Torres who, pilloried for his miss against Manchester United a week earlier, scored his second goal of the season.

2011 September 24, Aled Williams, “Chelsea 4-1 Swansea”, in BBC Sport:

Doing this is against my principles.

It is against the law to smoke on these premises.

There was no car in sight so we crossed against the red light.

Are you against freedom of choice?

He waged a ten-year campaign against the company that was polluting the river.

I'd bet against his succeeding.

(with implied object) Ten voted for, and three voted against.

Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation,[…]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.

2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

That horse is fifty-to-one against, so it has virtually no chance of winning.

Of betting odds, denoting a worse-than-even chance.

The vouchers are redeemable against West End shows and theatre breaks.

Tax is levied against income from sales.

He turned the umbrella against the wind.

Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and ʰTully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent.

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298:

Monoclonal antibodies were raised against these proteins: IN-1 and IN-2 bound both to the 35 kd and 250 kd inhibitors and to the surface of differentiated cultured oligodendrocytes.

1988 March 1, Pico Caroni with Martin E. Schwab, “Antibody against myelin associated inhibitor of neurite growth neutralizes nonpermissive substrate properties of CNS white matter”, in Neuron, →DOI, page 85:

The stores are kept well stocked against a time of need.

He wrote to a friend of his, that he lived but with browne bread and water, and entreated him to send him a piece of cheese, against [translating pour] the time he was to make a solemne feast.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 11, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

"And now leave me, I pray thee, and thou too, my own Kallikrates, for I would get me ready against our journey, and so must ye both, and your servant also."

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

Of the two fried chops served him for breakfast he ate one and gave Edmund the other, and put a buttered sandwich of bread in his pocket against the accidents of travel.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 18:

Rod, who always distrusted such methods, was forced to accept the new way but had begun to stash away large amounts of cash against the day that the system might be sabotaged or failed entirely.

2003, Rodger J. Bille, A Few of the Chosen: Survivors of Terrorism, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 8:

In anticipation of; in preparation for (a particular time, event etc.).

The studio weren't sure the movie would ever get made, so they only paid $50,000 against $200,000. That way they wouldn't be out very much if filming never began.

“Hollywood noises” yielded an early $35,000 option against $100,000 if the movie was made.

2011, Charles Foran, Mordecai: The Life & Times:

(Hollywood) To be paid now in contrast to the following amount to be paid later under specified circumstances, usually that a movie is made or has started filming.


save

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *sl̥h₂-wós
Proto-Italic *salawos
Latin salvus
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Italic *-āō
Latin -ō
Latin salvō
Latin salvāre
Old French sauverbor.
Middle English saven
English save
From Middle English saven, sauven, a borrowing from Old French sauver, from Late Latin salvāre (“to save”).

etymon

Under the terms of the Interdict no church services and offices were to be permitted save the baptism of infants and the confession of the dying.

2004, David Carpenter, The Penguin History of Britain: The Struggle for Mastery, Penguin Books:


given

Given the current situation, I don't think that's possible.


bet

insert right-hand needle bet 2 sts just knitted

1998, Kristin Nicholas, Knitting the New Classics, page 63:


among

Etymology tree
Old English on
Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-?
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm
Proto-Germanic *ga-
Proto-West Germanic *ga-
Old English ġe-
Old English mang
Old English ġemang
Old English onġemang
Old English amang
Middle English among
English among
From Middle English among, amang, amonge, amange, from Old English amang, onġemang, equivalent to a- + mong (“crowd; group; throng”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian monk, monken (“among”), West Frisian mank (“among”), Dutch mank, maank (“among”), German Low German mank, manken (“among”), dialectal German mang (“among”).

How can you speak with authority about their customs when you have never lived among them?

Denotes a mingling or intermixing with distinct or separable objects. (See Usage Note at amidst.)

He is among the few who completely understand the subject.

All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism.

2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

Denotes a belonging of a person or a thing to a group.

Lactose intolerance is common among people of Asian heritage.

Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us […]

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 1:1:

Denotes a sharing of a common feature in a group.


down

up

antonym(s) of “From the higher end to the lower”

From Middle English doun, from Old English dūne, aphetic form of adūne, from ofdūne (“off the hill”). For the development from directional phrases to prepositions, compare Middle Low German dāle (“(in/to the) valley”), i.e. "down(wards)".

noncog

The ball rolled down the hill.

We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.

throw one's hotdog down someone's hallway

We sailed down the eastern seaboard.

The bus went down the street.

They walked down the beach holding hands.

From one end to another of (in any direction); along.

sub ...-n (i.e. with an object in the accusative case)

I'll see you later down the pub.

(colloquial) At (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).


with

From Middle English with, from Old English wiþ (“against, opposite, toward, with”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþi, a shortened form of Proto-Germanic *wiþrą (“against”). In Middle English, the word shifted to denote association rather than opposition, displacing Middle English mid (“with”), from Old English mid (“with”), from Proto-Germanic *midi; an earlier model of this meaning shift exists in cognate Old Norse við; elsewhere, the converse meaning shift is exemplified by Old South Arabian 𐩨𐩺𐩬 (byn, “between, amid”) spawning Old South Arabian 𐩨𐩬 (bn, “against”) and even likewise frequent reverse meaning 𐩨𐩬 (bn, “from”). The adverb sense is probably a semantic loan from various other Germanic languages, such as Norwegian med, Swedish med, and German mit.

зі

before мною, Львова, and and words that begin with multiple constants

із

before words that begin with a single sibilant fricative consonant and between consonants

He picked a fight with the class bully.

Many hatchets, knives, & pieces of iron, & brass, we see, which they reported to have from the Sasquesahanocks a mighty people, and mortal enemies with the Massawomecks.

1621, John Smith, The Proceedings of the English Colony in Virginia:

He went with his friends.

No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:

In the company of; alongside, close to; near to.

She owns a motorcycle with a sidecar.

Jim was listening to Bach with his eyes closed.

The match result was 10-5, with John scoring three goals.

With a heavy sigh, she looked around the empty room.

Four people were injured, with one of them in critical condition.

With their reputation on the line, they decided to fire their PR team.

With that she told me that though she spake of her father, whom she named Chremes, she would hide no truth from me: […]

1590, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia:

With this he pointed to his face, and show'd
His hand and all his habit smear'd with blood.

1697, Virgil, “Aeneid”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil:

See where, on earth, the flowery glories lie,
With her they flourish'd, and with her they die.

1861, Alexander Pope, “The Fourth Pastoral, or Daphne”, in The Rev. George Gilfillan, editor, The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope:

With a bolt of fright he remembered that there was no bathroom in the Hobhouse Room. He leapt along the corridor in a panic, stopping by the long-case clock at the end where he flattened himself against the wall.

1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:

The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[…]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48:

Used to add supplemental information, especially to indicate simultaneous happening, or immediate succession or consequence.

We are with you all the way.

There are a number of problems with your plan.

What on Earth is wrong with my keyboard?

He was pleased with the outcome.

I’m upset with my father.

Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.

2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:

slain with robbers

He was torn to / pieces with a bear:

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

He was sick and lame of the scurvy, so as he could but lie in the cabin-door, and give direction, and, it should seem, was badly assisted either with mate or mariners

1669, Nathaniel Morton, New England’s Memorial:

But several sowing of Wheat at that time, because 'twas the usual time of doing of it, it lay in the Ground till Rain came, which was the latter end of October first, and then but part of it came up neither, because it was mustied and spoiled with lying so long in the Ground […]

1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry, page 61:

(obsolete) To denote the accomplishment of cause, means, instrument, etc; – sometimes equivalent to by.

cut with a knife

I water my plants with this watering can. This is the watering can I water my plants with.

Find what you want instantly with our search engine.

They dismissed the meeting with a wave of their hand.

Speak with a confident voice.

you have paid me equal, Heavens, / And sent my own rod to correct me with

(Can we date this quote?), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “A King and no King”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

They had cut of his head upon the cudy of his boat had not the man reskued him with a sword,

1620, William Bradford., Of Plymouth Plantation:

And keep each other company in spite, / As rivals in your common mistress, fame, / And with faint praises one another damn;

1677, William Wycherley, The plain-dealer, Prologue:

As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels.

2013 July-August, Stephen P. Lownie, David M. Pelz, “Stents to Prevent Stroke”, in American Scientist:

I am fain to dine and sup with water and bran.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

(obsolete) Using as nourishment; more recently replaced by on.

or not translated (direct object wih no preposition)

It was small and bumpy, with a tinge of orange.

Speak with confidence.

He spoke with sadness in his voice.

The sailors were infected with malaria.

Affected by (a certain emotion or condition).

overcome with happiness

green with envy; flushed with success

She was with Acme for twenty years before retiring last fall.

With your kind of body size, you shouldn’t be eating pizza at all.

That was a lot to explain; are you still with me?

Are you still with me? Good. I was worried, because you may not think you need a lightweight rifle.

1983 May 5, David E. Petzal, “The Lightweight Division”, in Field & Stream:

Keeping up with; understanding; following along.


come

From Middle English comen, cumen, from Old English cuman, from Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷémt (“to step”), from *gʷem- (“to step”).
cognates
Cognate from Proto-Germanic with Scots cum (“to come”), Saterland Frisian kuume (“to come”), West Frisian komme (“to come”), Low German kamen (“to come”), Dutch komen (“to come”), German kommen (“to come”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish komme (“to come”), Swedish komma (“to come”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic koma (“to come”).
Cognate from PIE via Latin veniō (“come, arrive”) with many Romance language terms (e.g., French venir, Portuguese vir, Spanish venir), Lithuanian gimti (“to be born, come into the world, arrive”), with terms in Iranian languages (e.g. Avestan 𐬘𐬀𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (jamaⁱti, “to go”)), via Sanskrit गच्छति (gácchati, “to go”) with many Indic language terms (e.g., Hindi गति (gati)).
Cognate to English basis, from PIE via Ancient Greek.

Leave it to settle for about three months and, come Christmas time, you'll have a delicious concoction to offer your guests.

Come retirement, their Social Security may turn out to be a lot less than they counted on.

Come summer, we would all head off to the coast.

"And a long sea voyage that starts at six o'clock come morning."

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 14:

Come the final whistle, Mikel Arteta lay flabbergasted on the turf.

2012 November 10, Amy Lawrence, “Fulham's Mark Schwarzer saves late penalty in dramatic draw at Arsenal”, in The Guardian:

She announced in April that come 10 February 2023, her songs would be featured in a romantic comedy titled It's All Coming Back To Me […]

2022 October 5, Beatriz Colon, “Celine Dion ushers in holiday season with exciting music news”, in Hello! Magazine:

Used to indicate a point in time at or after which a stated event or situation occurs.


between

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English betwene, from Old English betwēonum (“between, among”, dative plural, literally “by the two, near both”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- (“be-”) + *twīhnaz (“two each”), corresponding to be- + twain. Cognate with Scots between (“between”), Scots atween (“between”), Gothic 𐍄𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌽𐌰𐌹 (tweihnai, “two each”), Old English betweohs (“between”), Old English twinn (“double, twofold”). More at betwixt, twin.
More distantly related to Ancient Greek διά (diá, “through, across, by, over”) whence English dia- (“through, across, between”).
For the meaning development also compare with Mongolian хооронд (xoorond, “between”), connected with Mongolian хоёр (xojor, “two”).

cog

create daylight between oneself and someone

know the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground

know the difference between one's ass and one's elbow

put daylight between oneself and someone

there's many a slip between the cup and the lip

John stood between Amy and Mary.    Let’s meet between two and three.

I want to buy one that costs somewhere between forty and fifty dollars.

The prince is here at hand, pleaſeth your Lordſhip / To meet his grace iuſt diſtance tvveene our armies.

[c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], signature G2, recto:

Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame.

2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

In the position or interval that separates (two things), or intermediate in quantity or degree. (See Usage notes below.)

midis

in the position or interval that separates two things

-অৰ মাজ- (-or maz-) (with locative, genitive, dative or instrumental suffix depending on the context)

conversation between friends

She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

Between you and me, I think the boss is crazy.  Let's keep this between ourselves.

He's between jobs right now.  The shuttle runs between the town and the airport.

[If] you don’t want to flip the channels between Biden and Trump, join [the] live chat, [which is covering] both town halls.

2020, Lisa Lerer, “This Is Not the Debate We Wanted”, in The New York Times:

In transit from (one to the other, or connecting places).

ме́жду (méždu) (but often a different construction is used, and между here is sometimes considered nonstandard)

Between us all, we shall succeed.  We've only got £5 between us.

Between the leaky taps and the peeling wallpaper, there isn't much about this house to appeal to a buyer.

You must choose between him and me.

Some colour-blind people can't distinguish between red and green.

can be expressed by the elative case (-sta/-stä)

Between the food and the card games, this proved to be the best birthday party I have ever had.


following

Following the meeting, we all had a chat.


before

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Inherited from Middle English before／bifore, from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).

inh+

I want this done before Monday.

We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

He stood before me.

We sat before the fire to warm ourselves.

His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.

1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.[…]But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again[…]she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.

1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:

The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

He performed before the troops in North Africa.

He spoke before a joint session of Congress.

The case laid before the panel aroused nothing but ridicule.

If a suit be begun before an archdeacon[…]

1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani:

Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).

пред

under consideration, judgment, authority of

Your whole life is before you.

The golden age[…]is before us.

1831, Thomas Carlyle, “The Phœnix”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 164:

There is an Eternity behind thee as well as one before. Hast thou bewailed the aeons that passed without thee, who art so much afraid of the aeons that shall pass?

1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 76:

In store for, in the future of (someone).

In alphabetical order, "cat" comes before "dog", "canine" before feline".

In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.

قَبْلَ

in front of according to an ordering system

An entrepreneur puts market share and profit before quality, and amateur intrinsic qualities before economical considerations.

He that cometh after me is preferred before me.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 1:15:

At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.

пред

at a higher or greater position in a subjective ranking


round

From Middle English round, rounde, from Old Northern French roünt, rund, Old French ront, runt, reont ( > French rond), from both Late Latin retundus and the original Latin rotundus. The noun developed partly from the adjective and partly from the corresponding French noun rond. Doublet of rotund.

I look round the room quickly to make sure it's neat.

The serpent Error twines round human hearts.

1782, William Cowper, The Progress of Error:

The farmer fed his cow hay all the year round.

(used postpositively, rare in US) Alternative form of around


upside

Ruth Ann clenched her hand around the hairbrush and felt like smacking Ashley upside the head with it. She knew better than to talk that way.


v

England v Scotland

(UK and Commonwealth except Canada, Ireland) Abbreviation of versus.


by

→ Mandarin: by (bāi), BY (bāi)

From Middle English by, bi, from Old English bī (“by; near; around”), from Proto-West Germanic *bī, from Proto-Germanic *bi (“near; by; around; about”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi.
Cognate with West Frisian by (“by; near”), Afrikaans by (“at; by; near”), Saterland Frisian bie (“near; by”), Dutch bij (“near; by”), German Low German bi (“by; near; at”), German bei (“by; near; at”).

inh

тарафынан (tarafınan) (used in postposition)

ἐν (en) (+ dative, inanimate instrument)

nominative + ablative (e.g. talo talolta "house by house")

bye

archaic for preposition and adverb, not used for abbreviation, preferred for noun and interjection

The mailbox is by the bus stop.

The stream runs by our back door.

He ran straight by me.

From one side of something to the other, passing close by; past.

Be back by ten o'clock!.

We'll find someone by the end of March.

We will send it by the first week of July.

Not later than (the given time); not later than the end of (the given time interval).

The matter was decided by the chairman.

The boat was swamped by the water.

He was protected by his body armour.

Valencia threatened sporadically in the first half with Miguel having a decent effort deflected wide by Ashley Cole, while Jordi Alba's near-post cross was flicked into the sidenetting by Pablo Hernandez.

2011 September 28, Jon Smith, “Valencia 1-1 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport:

Indicates the person or thing that does or causes something: Through the action or presence of.

There was a call by the unions for a 30% pay rise.

I was aghast by what I saw.

In other directions the fields and sky were so much of one colour by the snow that it was difficult in a hasty glance to tell whereabouts the horizon occurred […].

1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, 2005 Barnes & Noble Classics publication of 1912 Wessex edition, p.109

(not in common modern use) Following an adjective.

There are many well-known plays by William Shakespeare

Indicates the creator of a work: Existing through the authorship etc. of.

I avoided the guards by moving only when they weren't looking.

By Pythagoras' theorem, we can calculate the length of the hypotenuse.

We went by bus.

I discovered it by chance.

By 'maybe' she means 'no'.

The electricity was cut off, so we had to read by candlelight.

"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.[…]"

1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:

Players: Can we get there by candlelight? ¶ Gatekeepers: Yes and back again.

1945, Neva L. Boyd, Handbook of Recreational Games, Dover, published 1975, →ISBN, page 16:

By the light of the moon, / by the light of a star / they walked all night

1960, Dr. Seuss, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish:

Indicates a means of achieving something: Involving/using the means of.

By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife.

Indicates an authority according to which something is done.

By Jove! I think she's got it!

By all that is holy, I'll put an end to this.

By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

'By my soul! I believe something bad has happened me,' he muttered, and popped up his window, and looked out, half dreaming over the church-yard on the park beyond […]

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

-ra

(indicates an oath) with the authority of

I sorted the items by category.

Table 1 shows details of our employees broken down by sex and age.

Indicates a means of classification or organisation.

podle

indicating means of classification or organisation

Our stock is up by ten percent.

His date of birth was wrong by ten years.

Indicates the amount of change, difference or discrepancy

o

indicating amount of change, difference or discrepancy

We went through the book page by page.

We crawled forward by inches.

In the formulae X by X and by Xs, indicates a steady progression, one X after another.

sold by the yard; cheaper if bought by the gross

He drinks brandy by the bucketful!

(with the) Acted on in units of the specified size or measure. (Sometimes hyperbolically)

His health was deteriorating by the day.

The pickers are paid by the bushel.

He cheated by his own admission.

By my reckoning, we should be nearly there.

Ignorant and ſuperſtitious wretches meaſure the actions of letterd and philoſophical men by the tattle of their nurſes or illiterate parents and companions, or by the faſhion of the country : and people of differing religions judge and condemn each other by their own tenents ; when both of them cannot be in the right, and it is well if either of them are.

1722, William Wollaston, “Sect. V. Truths relating to the Deity. Of his exiſtence, perfection, providence, &c.”, in The Religion of Nature Delineated, page 81:

Indicates a referenced source: According to.

It is easy to invert a 2-by-2 matrix.

The room was about 4 foot by 6 foot.

The bricks used to build the wall measured 10 by 20 by 30 cm.

Used to separate dimensions when describing the size of something.

-e (quantity of the first dimension in the dative)

She's a lovely little filly, by Big Lad, out of Damsel in Distress.

(horse breeding) Designates a horse's male parent (sire); cf. out of.


gain

From dialectal English gen, gin, short for again, agen (“against”); also Middle English gain, gayn, gein, ȝæn (“against”), from Old English gēan, geġn (“against”). More at against.


w

Abbreviations.
w
# (stenoscript) the sound sequence /aʊ̯/.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of we.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of were.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of who and its inflection whom.

ng

and its inflection <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">whom</i>.

Alternative form: w/

This was supposed 2 be a SURPRISE, but the girls got it out of me. ☺ I wanted all of us 2 spend Xmas 2gether. By all, I mean r horses 2. Sooo . . . B, C, G, Z, & D, you have guests waiting @ BC. Zane, Valentino, Scout, Nero, & Polo r there! Now we can ride r horses when we r not volunteering & spend Xmas w them. ☺

2013, Jessica Burkhart, Home for Christmas (Canterwood Crest; Super Special), New York, NY: Aladdin M!X, →ISBN, page 44:

(Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of with.

When Sharon took the Enneagram test, she came out as a 3w2.


near

From Middle English nere, ner, from Old English nēar (“nearer”, comparative of nēah (“nigh”), the superlative would become next), influenced by Old Norse nær (“near”), both originating from Proto-Germanic *nēhwiz (“nearer”), comparative of the adverb *nēhw (“near”), from the adjective *nēhwaz, ultimately from Pre-Proto-Germanic *h₂nḗḱwos, a lengthened-grade adjective derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂neḱ- (“to reach”).
Cognate with Old Frisian niār (“nearer”), Dutch naar (“to, towards”), German näher (“nearer”), Danish nær (“near, close”), Norwegian nær (“near, close”) Swedish nära (“near, close”). See also nigh.
Near appears to be derived from (or at the very least influenced by) the North Germanic languages; compare Danish nær (“near, close”), Norwegian nær (“near, close”) Swedish nära (“near, close”), as opposed to nigh, which continues the inherited West Germanic adjective, like Dutch na (“close, near”), German nah (“close, near, nearby”), Luxembourgish no (“nearby, near, close”). Both, however, are ultimately derived from the same Proto-Germanic root: *nēhw (“near, close”).

cog

There are habitable planets orbiting many of the stars near our Sun.

Ts'ai Ch'ien 蔡乾 was born in 1908 in Changhua near Taichung, Taiwan (Formosa).

1957, Edgar Snow, Random Notes on Red China, Harvard University Press, published 1968, →OCLC, page 103:

He entered the inn, and asking for dinner, unbuckled his wallet, and sat down to rest himself near the door.

This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

It shied, balked, and whinnied, and in the end he could do nothing but drive it into the yard while the men used their own strength to get the heavy wagon near enough the hayloft for convenient pitching.

1927, H.P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space:

Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.

2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:

Physically close to, in close proximity to.

The voyage was near completion.

His opinions are near the limit of what is acceptable.

There was no way Brín felt anything anywhere near what I felt for him. He saw me as a friend.


ore

When I behold the violet paſt prime, / And ſable curls or ſiluer'd ore with white: […]

1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 12”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, signature B3, recto:


short

From Middle English schort, short, from Old English sċeort, sċort (“short”), from Proto-West Germanic *skurt, from Proto-Germanic *skurtaz (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-.
Cognates
shirt, skirt, curt, Scots short, schort (“short”), French court, Dutch kort, German kurz, Old High German scurz (“short”) (whence Middle High German schurz), Old Norse skorta (“to lack”) (whence Danish skorte), Albanian shkurt (“short, brief”), Latin curtus (“shortened, incomplete”) and Proto-Slavic *kortъkъ. Doublet of curt. More at shirt.

We are short a few men on the second shift.

He's short common sense.

I don’t want to be short the market going into the weekend.

(finance) Having a negative position in.


than

then (unstressed form, also for some speakers stressed form)

From Middle English than, thanne, from Old English þanne, a variant of þonne (“then, since, because”), from Proto-West Germanic *þan, from Proto-Germanic *þan (“at that, at that time, then”), from earlier *þam, from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“demonstrative pronoun, that”).
Cognate with Dutch dan (“than”), German denn (“than”), German dann (“then”). Doublet of then.

inh

Patients diagnosed more recently are probably surviving an average of longer than two years.

No player is more skillful than Greg.

introduces a comparison, and is associated with comparatives, and with words such as more, less, and fewer. Typically, it seeks to measure the force of an adjective or similar description between two predicates.

partitive case followed by a comparative adjective


AKA

That man by the bar is Frank, AKA "the lady killer".


without

From Middle English withoute, withouten, from Old English wiþūtan (literally “against the outside of”). Compare Dutch buiten (“outside of, without”), Danish uden (“without”), Swedish utan (“without”), Norwegian uten (“without”). By surface analysis, with- + out.

a prophet is not without honor save in his own country

a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle

can't live with them and can't live without them

let he who is without sin cast the first stone

let him that is without sin cast the first stone

let him who is without sin cast the first stone

you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs

zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse

Without the gate / Some drive the cars, and some the coursers rein.

1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

From thence we came without the Eaſtern gate, (ſtanding on a low Banke, called the daughter of Syon, that over-toppeth the valley of Iehoſaphat,) unto an immoveable ſtone, upon the which they ſaid St. Stephen was ſtoned to death, the firſt Martyr of the Chriſtian faith; and the faithfull fore-runner of many noble followers.

1640, William Lithgow, “The Sixt Part”, in The Totall Diſcourſe, Of the rare Adventures, and painefull Peregrinations of long nineteene yeares Travailes from Scotland, to the moſt famous Kingdomes in Europe, Aſia, and Affrica […], London: I. Okes, page 249:

Eternity, before the world and after, is without our reach.

c. 1689, Thomas Burnet, The Sacred Theory of the Earth:

[…] though it was pitch-dark, and we were obliged to be escorted by grooms and groomlings with candles and lanterns; a very necessary precaution, as the winds blew not more violently without the house than within.

1835, William Beckford, Italy: With Sketches of Spain and Portugal, volume 1, page 13:

(archaic or literary) Outside of, beyond.

It was a mistake to leave my house without a coat.

From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

One day my dreams were surely dying, dying, dying baby
Just like a flower without rain

1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder (lyrics and music), “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder:

1967, Paul McCartney (writer), The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Life goes on within you and without you.

Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema.

2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:

"Read lips: Without gas or without you? Without you. Without light or without you? Without you. Without water or without you? Without you. Without food or without you? Without you.
"Cold, hunger, darkness and thirst are not as terrible and deadly for us as your "friendship and brotherhood."

2022 September 11, Scott McDonald, quoting President Volodymyr Zelensky, “Cold, Hunger and Darkness in Ukraine 'Not as Terrible' as Russia: Zelensky”, in Newsweek, archived from the original on 2022-09-12:

Not having, containing, characteristic of, etc.

(if a gerund is expressed with a verb form) anélkül, hogy

He likes to eat everything without sharing.

He shot without warning anyone.

But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.

1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

Athelstan Arundel walked home[…], foaming and raging. […] He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16:


ta

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

Pronunciation spelling of to, representing the standard unstressed pronunciation before consonants.


this is 4 U ― this is for you

(text messaging, slang) Abbreviation of for.


I have 2 go now.

Send files 2 him.

(text messaging, informal) Abbreviation of to.

pdf2txt, i.e. conversion from PDF to plain text

(computing) Abbreviation of to; designating conversion from one format to another


in the wake of

In the noticeable disturbance of water behind (a maritime vessel).


half

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

From Middle English half, halfe from Old English healf (“half”); as a noun, 'half', 'side', 'part', from Proto-West Germanic *halb, from Proto-Germanic *halbaz.
Cognates:
Akin to Old Saxon, Old Frisian, and Dutch half, West Frisian heal, German halb, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian halv, Icelandic hálfur and Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌱𐍃 (halbs). Compare halve, behalf.

The time is 9:30; it is half nine.

(UK, Ireland) Half past; a half-hour (30 minutes) after the last hour.

In some countries, "half seven" means 6:30.

(rare, see usage notes) A half-hour to (preceding) the next hour.


amongst

From amongs + -t (excrescent), from among + -s (genitive). By surface analysis, among + -st (excrescent). Root among from Old English ongemang, from on (“in”) + gemang (“assemblage, mingling”).

surf

Janek feels very at ease amongst his friends, but gets incredibly nervous when meeting new people.

And novv thee vvorſhip, mongſt that bleſſed throng / Of heauenlie Poets and Heroes ſtrong.

[1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “The Ruines of Time”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC, signature C2, verso:

a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, “[Baconiana Politico-Moralia. […].] It is my purpoſe to give a true and plain Account, of the Deſigns and Labours of a very great Philoſopher amongſt us; and to offer to the World, in ſome tollerable Method, thoſe Remains of his, which to that end, were put into my Hands.”, in [Thomas Tenison], editor, Baconiana. Or Certain Genuine Remains of Sr. Francis Bacon, […], London: […] J. D. for Richard Chiswell, […], published 1679, →OCLC, page 21:

The smart little locomotives, mostly 0-6-0 saddletanks, which are always busy shunting traffic amongst the vast dockside warehouses, belong to the Manchester Ship Canal Railway, a line of considerable importance.

1959 October, Norman Jones, “The Manchester Ship Canal Railway”, in Trains Illustrated, page 488:

Denotes a mingling or intermixing with distinct or separable objects. See usage note at amidst.

entre

Used to denote a mingling or intermixing


sans

From Middle English saunz, sans, borrowed from Old French sans, senz, sens, from Latin sine (“without”) conflated with absēns (“absent, remote”). Compare French sans, Italian senza, Portuguese sem, and Spanish sin.

Bero[wne]. […] And to begin Wench, ſo God helpe me law,
My loue to thee is ſound, ſance cracke or flaw.
Roſa[line]. Sans, ſans, I pray you.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], signature H3, recto, lines 414–416:

Those with brooms started to sweep literally, at the feet of the crowd, driving it back into the side streets from which it had emerged to form this assembly – now riders sans steeds.

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Qutet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 766:

But regardless of when Wally had parked himself out in that backyard—sans coat or jacket—somehow, the old lady must have known where Wally would be before he drove out to the Isaacs trailer—or else she followed him out there from his house.

1991, A. R. Morlan, The Amulet, page 212:

Skin needs ultraviolet radiation to begin the synthesis of vitamin D, but dermatologists say you can probably get the necessary electromagnetic input from a mere 20 minutes of sun exposure a week, as you go about your daily affairs, sunblocked and sans beach.

2007 September 4, Natalie Angier, “A Supple Casing, Prone to Damage”, in New York Times:

(literary, now chiefly humorous) without, lacking


cross

From Middle English cross, cros, from Old English cros (“rood, cross”), perhaps from Old Irish cros (compare Welsh croes, Irish crois), perhaps from Latin crux (cruci). In this sense displaced native Middle English rood, from Old English rōd; see rood.
The sense of "two intersecting lines drawn or cut on a surface; two lines intersecting at right angles" without regard to religious signification develops from the late 14th century.
cognates
*Old Norse kross (“cross”)
*Icelandic kross (“cross”)
*Faroese krossur (“cross”)
*Danish kors (“cross”)
*Swedish kors (“cross”)
*German Kreuz (“cross”)
*Dutch kruis (“cross”)

She walked cross the mountains.

A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village.

1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

The Lorentz force is q times v cross B.

The cross product of the previous vector and the following vector.


bar

From Middle English barren, from Old French barrer, from Medieval Latin barrare (“to bar”), from the noun. Cognate to Occitan barrar, Spanish barrar, Portuguese barrar.
Preposition properly imperative of the verb. Compare barring.

He invited everyone to his wedding bar his ex-wife.

"I might be a fool," the younger man admitted quietly, "even an idiot, but there's not a person living, bar you, who possess the courage to call me a weakling, Sir."

1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter I, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, page 5:

These see the overhead wires installed on all bar the slow lines between Bedford and Wellingborough by next May, with the remaining section completed by August, when the full programme is due to be completed.

2019 October, Philip Sherratt, “Midland Main Line upgrade presses on”, in Modern Railways, page 62:

Leg At Each Corner is at 3/1, Lost My Shirt 5/1, and it's 10/1 bar.

(horse racing) Denotes the minimum odds offered on other horses not mentioned by name.


less

Adverb From Middle English les, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣs (“smaller, less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisiz, from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to shrink, grow thin, be gentle”). Cognate with Old Frisian lēs (“less”), Old Saxon lēs (“less”). According to Kroonen (2013), from a northern Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *leh₂is- or *leh₃is-, which he connects to Lithuanian liesas (“lean”).
Determiner and preposition from Middle English lees, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣssa (“less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisizan-, from Proto-Germanic *laisiz (“smaller, lesser, fewer, lower”) (see above). Cognate with Old Frisian lessa (“less”).
Verb from Middle English lessen, from the determiner.
Noun from Middle English lesse, from the determiner.

der

It should then tax all of that as personal income, less the proportion of the car's annual mileage demonstrably clocked up on company business.


via

Borrowed from Latin viā (“by the way (of)”), ablative singular of via (“way, road”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ-.

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-via.wav

Audio (US)

They drove from New York to Los Angeles via Omaha.

You can enter the building via the western gate.

I'll send you the information via e-mail.

A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.

2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly):

Under the assumptions of Proposition 5 the entropies h(τ) and H(k) are related via the following equation: […]

2005, “Capacity Bounds For MIMO Poisson Channels With Intersymbol Interference, Appendix C”, in Enrico Forestieri, editor, Optical Communication Theory and Techniques, →ISBN, page 44:


py

(Germanesque) Pronunciation spelling of by.


wit

(Southern US) Pronunciation spelling of with.


per

From Latin per (“through, during”), from Proto-Indo-European *per. Doublet of par.

Admission is £10 per person.

miles per gallon

beats per minute

$2.50 per dozen

12 inches per foot

100 centimeters per meter

To each, in each (used in expressing ratios of units).

Introduce the endoscope per nasum.

The medication is to be administered per os.

(medicine) By the, by means of the, via the, through the.

I parked my car at the curb per your request.

Implement a program that computes the approximate grade level needed to comprehend some text, per the below.

Note that while the walkthrough illustrates that words may be separated by more than one space, you may assume, per the specifications above, that no sentences will contain more than one space in a row.


bout

They're talking bout you!

Maddy is bout to get beat up!


across

From Middle English acros, from early Middle English a-croiz, a-creoyz, from Anglo-Norman an (“in, on”) + croiz (“in the form of a cross”); Equivalent to a- + cross. More at cross.

We rowed across the river.

Fortunately, there was a bridge across the river.

He came across the street to meet me.

To, toward, or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).

That store is across the street.

On the opposite side of (something that lies between two points of interest).

And make sure you're parked across the mall in the outside lot. […] Last time I was there, I parked in a parking structure and paid an arm and a leg for it.

1994 June 21, Thong P Tong <tongtp@coyote.cig.mot.com>, "Re: Battle Tech Center", message-ID <2u7lsi$79n@delphinium.cig.mot.com>, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games, Usenet http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games/msg/28d5e0700985bbe6

On another occasion, Clinton asked Patterson to drive him to Chelsea's school, Booker Elementary, where Clinton met the department store clerk and climbed into her car.
"I parked across the entrance and stood outside the car looking around, about 120 feet from where they were parked in a lot that was pretty well lit," Patterson recalled. "[…]They stayed in the car for thirty to forty minutes."

1995, Ronald Kessler, Inside the White House, published 1996, →ISBN, page 243:

A boy that sat across me politely introduced himself as Jackson Klausner.

2011, Danielle Butler, Scars of Eternity, page 30:

(Southern US, African-American Vernacular) across from: on the opposite side, relative to something that lies between, from (a point of interest).

The meteor streaked across the sky.

He walked across the room.

Could you slide that across the table to me, please?

I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

From one side to the other within (a space being traversed).

(no corresponding word, literally:) 從一邊到另一邊

"Mam's baking and Cathleen's asleep. I've got a pile of washing bubbling in the copper, so I'd best be off." With that she was across the room and out the door.

2004, Josephine Cox, Lovers and Liars, →ISBN, page 78:

This poetry speaks across the centuries.

All across the country, voters were communicating their representatives.

Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 172:

Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."

2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:

Lay the top stick across the bottom one.

She had straps fastened across the conduit every six feet.

He parked across the end of the driveway, blocking her in.

2010, Alex Bledsoe, The Girls with Games of Blood, Tor, →ISBN, page 147:

So as to intersect or pass through or over at an angle.

Keep across all the latest news here at Channel 10.

As a regular news reader I thought I was across the eccentricities of the US president.

2019 September 20, Lenore Taylor, The Guardian:

In possession of full, up-to-date information about; abreast of.


ter

"But he never speaks ter anybody, child—he hain't for years, I guess, except when he just has to, for business, and all that."

1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC:

‘What about that tea then, eh?’ he said, rubbing his hands together. ‘I’d not say no ter summat stronger if yeh’ve got it, mind.’

1997, J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, section IV:


adjacent

Borrowed from Latin adiacēns, adiacentis, derivative of adiaceō (“I lie beside”); from ad (“to”) + iaceō (“I lie down”).

The house adjacent to the school was demolished.

A notice was sent to the house adjacent the school.

While Amazon has increasingly become a one-stop shop for some people, we’re also seeing a large proliferation of online companies looking to connect with users wherever they happen to be spending the most time, whether that’s on a social media platform, or on a site that caters to interests adjacent to the businesses’s own — and most importantly not necessarily on the company’s own web properties.

2008 March 27, Ingrid Lunden, “Braintree launches Extend to integrate loyalty, fraud prevention and other services into payments”, in TechCrunch, retrieved 2019-07-26:

(figuratively) Related to; suggestive of; bordering on.


afore

From Middle English afore, aforn, from Old English onforan or ætforan; equivalent to a- + fore.

He said he was jealous, and craved something to ease his care. 'It's but a small thing I ask,' says he, 'but it will make me a happy man, and nothing ever shall come atween us. Tryst wi' me for Beltane's E'en on the Sker sands, at the green link o' the burn where the sands begin, on the ebb o' the tide when midnight is by, but afore cockcrow. For,' said he, 'that was our forbears' tryst for true lovers, and wherefore no for you and me?'

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

"Oh aye!" his face lit up with a smile. "I mind that! Where was that?" "That was us when we all worked in the shop, afore the War." "Oh aye …?" he frowned. "Who …?" She took the photograph back from him and reached inside her apron pocket for her spectacles.

1982, Edward Chisnall, Bell in the Tree: The Glasgow story:

Before; situated geographically or metaphorically in front of.


opposite

From Old French oposite, from Latin oppositus, perfect passive participle of oppōnō (“I oppose”). Compare oppose.

He lives opposite the pub.

It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.[…]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.

1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:

He played opposite Marilyn Monroe.

The game show Just Men! aired opposite The Young and the Restless on CBS.

(television) On another channel at the same time.


amidst

From amids + -t (excrescent), from amid + -s (genitive). By surface analysis, amid + -st (excrescent). Root amid from Middle English amidde, amiddes, on midden, from Old English on middan (“in the middle”), from midd (“central”) (English mid).

surf

Be a philosopher ; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.

1748, [David Hume], chapter 4, in Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

Not so, however, with Tarzan, the man-child. His life amidst the dangers of the jungle had taught him to meet emergencies with self-confidence, and his higher intelligence resulted in a quickness of mental action far beyond the powers of the apes.

1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC:

In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among.

بَيْن

in the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among


alongside

/əˌlɒŋˈsaɪd/

/əˌlɔŋˈsaɪd/

/əˌlɑŋˈsaɪd/

/əˈlɑŋˌsaɪd/

/əˌlɔŋˈsɑɪd/

USNS John Lenthall (T-AO-189)
USS Harry S. Truman

à côté de

side by side with — see also beside, next to

The nurse worked alongside the doctor.

The Italian opted for Bolton's Cahill alongside captain John Terry - and his decision was rewarded with a goal after only 13 minutes. Bulgaria gave a hint of defensive frailties to come when they failed to clear Young's corner, and when Gareth Barry found Cahill in the box he applied the finish past Nikolay Mihaylov.

2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC:

A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.

2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):

Gatwick, on the other hand, is alongside the Brighton main line, with rail services both to the north (City and West End) and south.

2019 October, John Glover, “Heathrow rail expansion”, in Modern Railways, page 71:


amid

From Middle English amidde, Old English on middan, a- + mid.

At last the first glimpse from a bridge of an open-top red bus, and a noticeable darkening of the atmosphere from the smoke of London: then the increasingly dingy stations with double-barrel names, set amid what has always been to me the outstanding feature of the "Premier Line" approach to London—the positively marvellous display of crazy chimney-pots on the grey inner suburban houses. As many as twenty, all of varying style, standing together like ranks of jagged teeth, and providing a Dickensian back-cloth which no other route can boast.

1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 704:

The resulting social divisions can seem so "real" and "natural" to those living amid them that there is a strong tendency to believe that they are timeless biological or scientific facts, rather than social facts that have been assembled and built up through human effort.

2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 141:

Amid all the fevered anticipation of this fixture, few would have expected to witness an aesthetically pleasing example of the beautiful game.

2014 November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, in The Scotsman:

In Osaka, the big action scenes take place with arrows as well as swords, amid glass display cases holding samurai costumes, a classic Wick setting.

2023 March 14, Caryn James, “John Wick: Chapter 4: 'Soars above most action films'”, in BBC:

In the middle of; in the center of; surrounded by.


aloof

From Middle English loof (“weather gage, windward direction”), probably from Middle Dutch (Compare Dutch loef (“the weather side of a ship”)), originally a nautical order to keep the ship's head to the wind, thus to stay clear of a lee-shore or some other quarter, hence the figurative sense of "at a distance, apart".

cog

Rivetus […] would fain work himself aloof these rocks and quicksands.

1643, John Milton, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce:

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909


along

→ Tok Pisin: long

From Middle English, from Old English andlang, from prefix and- + lang (“long”). Doublet of endlong.

They were waiting for me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching along the entire front of the house, with three long windows reaching down to the floor

1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, page 294:

My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels.

2013 July-August, Stephen P. Lownie, David M. Pelz, “Stents to Prevent Stroke”, in American Scientist:

By the length of; in a line with the length of; lengthwise next to.

عَلَى طُول

by the length of; in a line with the length of; lengthwise next to

The kine[…]went along the highway.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Samuel 1 1-Chapter-6/#2 6:2:

In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.

1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266:

Swiftly and silently he made his way along the track which ran through the meadows.

1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, page 93:

We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

In a line with, with a progressive motion on; onward on; forward on.

بِالتَّوَازِي مَعَ

in a line with, with a progressive motion on; onward on; forward on


out of

From Middle English oute of, from Old English ūt of.

exterior to

Expressing motion away, literal or figurative; opposed to into.; So as no longer to be in a given condition or state.

without

Expressing motion away, literal or figurative; opposed to into.; From a thing or or place as a source, place of origin etc.

The audience came out of the theater.

The cat jumped out of the basket.

I have fallen out of love with you.

They will soon be out of business.

This train will be going out of service at the next station.

He ate out of a big bowl.

Turns out he's some rapper out of New York called Buster Bigmouth.

Mike Morgillo, a cop out of the Bronx borough command — who is married to a detective — says he's sick of sitting around other cops' backyards hearing the same old he-shot, she-shot stories.

1997, New York, volume 30, number 31, page 33:

(informal) From a thing or or place as a source, place of origin etc.

There's the Titanic out of Liverpool.

(nautical) Stating the port in which a boat has been registered.

Only three out of a thousand are born with this rare disease.

Out of the entire class, only Cynthia completed the work.

Out of all men beg for a chance to drill your lots, maybe one in twenty will be oilmen.

2007 September 27, Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood, spoken by Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), distributed by Paramount Vantage & Miramax Films:

Taken from among; expressing a fraction of (a larger number).

She's a lovely little filly, by Big Lad, out of Damsel in Distress.

(now chiefly horse breeding) Born from a given mother (cf. by).

His feet rested out of the water.

Is your mother out of hospital?

Expressing position outside, literal or figurative; opposed to in.

I'm rather out of practice right now.

He cannot see you because he's feeling out of spirits today.

Sorry, we're out of bread.

Once out of the farm the approach of poverty would be sure.

1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, Barnes & Noble, published 2005, page 276:

I laughed out of embarrassment.

She only did it out of love for him.

She asked the question out of mere curiosity.

It's made out of mahogany.

From a given material as means of construction.

They're out of Tampa and they cover the Southeast.

He works out of the main office.

This company, based out of England has a full line of magickal products but I can really on^([sic]) comment on their charcoal incense.

2007, Raven Womack, The Raven's Flight Book of Incense, Oils, Potions and Brews, page 107:

The first major radio networks were based out of New York, and these chains of radio stations would broadcast the same programs that would originate from New York to its subsidiary stations across the nation.

2015, Alan C. Turley, Urban Culture: Exploring Cities and Cultures, page 81:

(informal) In a manner based in but not always in (a certain place); (loosely) in.

Five months out of the election

Several yards out of the ocean

(often informal) expression of how distant a person, an event or object is.


ago

From Middle English ago, agon (“passed”), past participle of agon (“to depart, escape, pass”), from Old English āgān (“to go away, pass away, go forth, come to pass”), from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out”), *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to a- + gone, and by surface analysis, a- + go. Cognate with German ergehen (“to come to pass, fare, go forth”). Compare also Old Saxon āgangan (“to go or pass by”), Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌰𐌽 (usgaggan, “to go forth”).

cog

I got married ten years ago.

Two years ago a pair of scientists sparked fears of a devastating virus.

2013 August 10, “Damned if you don’t”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

-a/-e/-ja/-je (e.g. egy órája: one hour ago)


out

From Middle English out, oute, from a combination of Old English ūt (“out”, preposition & adverb), from Proto-West Germanic *ūt, from Proto-Germanic *ūt (“out”); and Old English ūte (“outside; without”, adverb), from Proto-Germanic *ūtai (“out; outside”); both from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“upwards, away”).
Cognate with Scots oot, out (“out”), Saterland Frisian uut, uute (“out”), West Frisian út (“out”), Dutch uit (“out”), German Low German ut (“out”), German aus (“out”), Norwegian/Swedish ut, ute (“out; outside”), Danish ud, ude (“out; outside”).

inh

Can you, when you have pushed out your gates the very defender of them, and in a violent popular ignorance given your enemy your shield, think to front his revenges with the easy groans of old women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as you seem to be?

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

Thy roselips and full blue eyes / Take the heart from out my breast.

After she'd made her single cup of coffee she sat looking out the window into the slushy, halficy backyard and dialed Tony's number on Staten Island.

2012, Thomas Gifford, Woman in the Window:

From the inside to the outside of; out of.

Translation notes
In many languages there is no direct translation, as the idea expressed by the English adverb is expressed by a prefix in many languages. Other West Germanic languages are halfway in-between to some extent as it uses a prefix in the infinitive of its verbs, but often, though not always, separates the prefix into the same form as the English adverb when conjugating them.

usually expressed by the prefix el- and/or preposition el (1)

ablative case (-lta, -ltä) or elative case (-sta, -stä)

usually expressed by the prefix вы- (vy-)

sometimes expressed by the prefix ut. In some cases considered somewhat formal.


up

From Middle English up, from Old English upp, from Proto-Germanic *upp, see more there.

The cat climbed up the tree.

They walk up the steps.

Her eyes scanned up and down the page.

Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

-ra/-re fel (used simultaneously with the suffix)

The information made its way up the chain of command to the general.

I felt something crawling up my arm.

Toward the center, source, or main point of reference; toward the end at which something is attached.

We sailed up the East Coast of England from Ipswich to South Shields.

Though the storm raged up the East Coast, it has become increasingly apparent that New Jersey took the brunt of it.

2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-31:

Go up the street until you see the sign.

He led an expedition up the Amazon.

From the mouth towards the source of (a river or waterway).

Phwoar, look at that bird. I'd love to be up her.

(vulgar slang) Of a person: having sex with.

I'll see you later up the snooker club.

“I'll tell you how I got on in the fight if I should see you up the Smokers.”

2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 94:

(colloquial) At (a given place, especially one imagined to be higher or more distant from a central location).


as well as

As well as the obvious financial benefits, the merger will allow us some breathing room with regards to R&D.


inside

From Middle English ynneside; equivalent to in- + side.
Compare German Innenseite (“inside”), Danish inderside (“inside”), Swedish insida (“inside”), Dutch binnenzijde (“inside”), German Low German Binnensied, Binnersied (“inside”), Saterland Frisian Binnersiede (“inside”).

cog

the call is coming from inside the house

He placed the letter inside the envelope.

Within the interior of something, closest to the center or to a specific point of reference.

دَاخِل

within the interior of something, closest to the center or to a specific point of reference

The job was finished inside two weeks.

Then he commenced to talk, really talk, and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:


'til

From a reinterpretation of till as an aphetic form of until.


outta

I'm outta here!

If you're reading this... get the hell outta this place! Now!

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Aequitas:


outa

[…] and lo! here’s all humanity hep and weird wandering on the evening sidewalk amazing me outa my eyeballs[…]

1965, Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels, page 101:


outside

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Nattes à chat-outside.wav

1919 June 28, the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, Treaty of Versailles, Part IV—German Rights and Interests outside Germany,
In territory outside her European frontiers as fixed by the present Treaty, Germany renounces all rights, titles and privileges whatever in or over territory which belonged to her or to her allies, and all rights, titles and privileges whatever their origin which she held as against the Allied and Associated Powers.

There is jurisdiction over an offense under section 601 committed outside the United States if the individual committing the offense is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (as defined in section 101(a)(20) of the Immigration and Nationality Act).

1982, 97th Congress of the United States, Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982:

Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:

On the outside of, not inside (something, such as a building).

(often following a preposition) חוּץ לְ־ (khutz l'-)

tourists from outside the country

Beyond the scope, limits, or borders of.

Up the hill Richmond town was burning briskly; outside the town of Richmond there was no trace of the Black Smoke.

1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds:

Jane Green […] lives outside New York City with her husband and children.

2002, Jane Green, Bookends, 2003 trade paperback edition, outside back cover

Kastner lives in University City with his wife, Leslie Cohen, who works for the Jewish Federation, and their 17-month-old old son. Kastner grew up outside Cleveland.

2010 December, Patricia Corrigan, "Beyond Congregations", OY! (magazine section), St. Louis Jewish Light, volume 63, number 50, page 24

Outside of winning the lottery, the only way to succeed is through many years of hard work.


apropos

/ˌæp.ɹəˈpəʊ/

/ˌæp.ɹəˈpoʊ/

Borrowed from French à propos (“on that subject”).
Similar in meaning and form, and to some extent etymology, to appropriate, but not a doublet of it.

Few have the same root and branch obsession with the recent past or the avenger’s recall (‘the necessity for long memory and sarcasm in argument’, as he wrote apropos the old left intelligentsia in New York).

2011, Jeremy Harding, “Diary”, in London Review of Books, 33.VII:


over

From Middle English over, from Old English ofer, from Proto-West Germanic *obar, from Proto-Germanic *uber (“over”), from Proto-Indo-European *upér, a comparative form of *upo.
Akin to Dutch over, German ober, über, Danish over, Norwegian over, Swedish över, Icelandic yfir, Faroese yvir, Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌰𐍂 (ufar), Latin super, Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér), Albanian upri (“group of peasants”), Sanskrit उपरि (upári).
Doublet of uber, super, and hyper.

Hold the sign up over your head.

Over them gleamed far off the crimson banners of morning.

1858 October 16, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:

The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,[…]. Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.

2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

On top of; above; higher than; further up.

There is a bridge over the river.

I looked out over the sea.

My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

If I saw the wild geese fly over the dark lakes of Kerry...

1918, Dora Sigerson Shorter, Sick I Am and Sorrowful:

Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.

2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:

Expressing spatial relationship.
Across or spanning.

عَبْرَ

physical positioning: across or spanning

Drape the fabric over the table.

There is a roof over the house.

Expressing spatial relationship.
In such a way as to cover.

վրա

physical positioning: in such a way as to cover

The dog jumped over the fence.

I'll go over [the fence] first and then help you.

Let's walk over the hill to get there.

From one physical position to another via an obstacle that must be traversed vertically, first upwards and then downwards.

през

physical positioning: from one position to another over an obstacle

A stern voice boomed over the loudspeaker.

The message came over FM radio.

(figurative) Transmitted using a particular medium

Expressing spatial relationship.
Transmitted using a particular medium

I prefer the purple over the pink.

Expressing comparison.
More than; to a greater degree.

فَوْقَ

by comparison: more than; to a greater degree

I think I’m over my limit for calories for today.

Beyond; past; exceeding; too much or too far.

Sales are down this quarter over last.

(in certain collocations) As compared to.

The owner's son lorded it over the experienced managers.

The prince ruled over a portion of the kingdom.

Indicating relative status, authority, or power

Two over six equals one over three.

9♦9♠9♣6♥6♠ = nines over sixes

(poker) Separates the three of a kind from the pair in a full house.

We got over the engineering problems and the prototype works great.

I am over my cold and feel great again.

I know the referee made a bad call, but you have to get over it [your annoyance with the referee's decision].

She is finally over [the distress of] losing her job.

He is finally over his [distress over the loss of the relationship with his] ex-girlfriend.

Finished with; done with; from one state to another via a hindrance that must be solved or defeated; or via a third state that represents a significant difference from the first two.

Six diners in business clothes—five attractive young women and a balding middle-aged man—relax over cigarettes.

1990, Seymour Chatman, Coming to Terms, Cornell, →ISBN, page 100:

Sunday had been my favorite day at Woodlawn. A long W.A.A. [="work as assigned" period], having coffee and croissants with Mark over the Sunday Times.

1998, Marian Swerdlow, Underground Woman, Temple, →ISBN, page 88:

Over meatloaf and mashed potatoes (being careful not to talk with his mouth full), Stanley told about his adventure.

2009, Sara Pennypacker, The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery, Scholastic, →ISBN, page 79:

While using, especially while consuming.

The two boys had a fight over whose girlfriend was the best.

It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.

2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

We triumphed over difficulties.

The bill was passed over the veto.

It was a fine victory over their opponents.

Above, implying superiority after a contest; in spite of; notwithstanding.

-stä (elative case in the sense "above")

He was fired over that.

Microsoft CEO should be fired over cyber failure

2024 May 24, “https://www.afr.com/technology/microsoft-ceo-should-be-fired-over-cyber-failure-20240523-p5jg4q”, in Financial Review:

Expressing causation; due to, as the result of


till

From Middle English til, from Northern Old English til, from or akin to Old Norse til (“to, till”); both from Proto-Germanic *til (“to, toward”), from Proto-Germanic *tilą (“planned point in time”). Not a shortening of until; rather, until comes from till with the prefix un- (“against; toward; up to”) also found in unto. Cognate with Old Frisian til (“to, till”), Danish til (“to”), Swedish till (“to, till”), Icelandic til (“to, till”). Also related to Old English til (“good”), German Ziel (“goal”), Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌻 (til, “something fitting or suitable”).

cog

don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear

the cow knows not the worth of its tail till it loses it

you don't miss the water till the well runs dry

you never know what you've got till it's gone

you never miss the water till the well runs dry

She stayed till the very end.

I have to work till eight o'clock tonight.

Similar sentiments will recur to everyone familiar with his writings all through them till the very end.

1854, Prof. John Wilson, The Genius and Character of Burns, page 194:

The line was authorised on June 23, 1864, but not opened till July 11, 1881.

1946 May and June, G. A. Sekon, “L.B.S.C.R. West Coast Section—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 148:

While the PA has not always seen eye-to-eye with US foreign policy, its survival remained, till recently, a top American priority.

2019 March 14, Ramzy Baroud, “Chasing mirages: What are Palestinians doing to combat ‘Deal of the Century’?”, in Ma'an News, archived from the original on 2019-03-30:

Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time).

It's twenty till two. (1:40)

Is that the town-clock striking? / I think that it is to-night / My fever will reach its crisis, / There are long hours yet till light.

1880, A. T. Fullerton, “Fever”, in Littell's Living Age, volume 147, page 578:

They led him till his tent

She, poor bird, as all forlorn / Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn / And there sung the dolefull'st ditty, / To to hear it was great pity.

1599, William Shakespeare (attributed), The Passionate Pilgrim:

And till the kirk she wadna gae, / nor till't she wadna ride, / Till four-and-twenty men she gat her before, / And twenty on ilka side

1806, “Lord Wa'Yates and Auld Ingram”, in Robert Jameson, editor, Popular Ballads and Songs, volume 2:

For a king to gang an outlaw till / Is beneath his state and his dignitie.

1838, “The Outlaw Murray”, in Walter Scott, editor, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border:

(obsolete or dialectal) To, up to (physically).

"Here's at you old hoss!" hiccupped I, with a friendly pitch in the way of a nod at Rice.
"Go it, young grampus, that's me! Here's till ye, my infant progidy!" replied he, as he clinked his glass against mine.

1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 20:

And then she changed her voice and would be as saft as honey: 'My puir wee Ailie, was I thrawn till ye? Never mind, my bonnie. You and me are a' that's left, and we maunna be ill to ither.'

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(obsolete or dialectal) To, toward (in attitude).

1953?, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
VLADIMIR: Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.) Get up till I embrace you.

(dialectal) So that (something may happen).


pace

From Latin pāce (“in peace”), ablative form of pāx (“peace”).

She is marvelous here, but he (pace many critics) is no bumpkin

1998, Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human:

With all due respect
with all due respect


until

From Middle English vntil, until, untill, ontil, ontill, perhaps representing a northern variant of Middle English unto (see Modern English unto). By surface analysis, un- (“against; toward; up to”) + till.

surf

If you can wait until after my meeting with her, we'll talk then.

Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.

2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

Up to the time of (something happening).

Keep walking until the second set of traffic lights, then turn left.

I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."

2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:

He rousd himselfe full blith, and hastned them untill.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 4:


under

From Middle English under, from Old English under, from Proto-Germanic *under (whence also German unter, Dutch onder, Danish and Norwegian under), from a merger of Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥dʰér (“under”) and *h₁entér (“inside”). Akin to Old High German untar (“under”), Sanskrit अन्तर् (antar, “within”), Latin infrā (“below, beneath”) and inter (“between, among”).

We found some shade under a tree.

About £10,000 was stuffed under the mattress.

There is nothing new under the sun.

There is an oil leak under the car.

The little boys in the front bedroom had thrown off their blankets and lay under the sheets.

1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:

Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.[…]Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:

At the bottom of or in the area covered or surmounted by.

The crocodile lurked just under the water.

I crawled under the fence.

There is a tunnel under the English Channel.

From one side of to the other, passing beneath.

Interest rates are now under 1%.

We can get there in under an hour.

genitive case + འོག་ལ ('og la) (as postposition)

He served in World War II under General Omar Bradley.

During the pandemic, we had to live under severe restrictions.

Under the law and concession agreement with other parties, the private company must pay taxes in time and on a right amount.

There is general agreement that his military forces were organized into six divisions. They were stationed at the following places: at Ti-hua under the command of Liu Hsi-tsen, at T'a-ch'eng under Chiang Sung-lin, at Ili under Niu Shih, at A-shan under Wei Chen-kuo, at A-k'o-su under Chang Tzu-t'ing, and at Ko-shih-ko-erh (Kashgar) nominally under Tsou-ying, but in reality under Chin's brother, Chin Shu-chih.

1987, Arthur C. Hasiotis, Jr., Soviet Political, Economic, and Military Involvement in Sinkiang from 1928 to 1949, Garland Publishing, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 62:

He was then denied by a magnificent tackle from captain Terry as Liverpool continued to press - but Chelsea survived as the memories of the nightmare under Villas-Boas faded even further into the background.

2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:

Dati launched a blistering attack on the prime minister, François Fillon, under whom she served as justice minister, accusing him of sexism, elitism, arrogance and hindering the political advancement of ethnic minorities.

2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian:

Subordinate to; subject to the control of; in accordance with; in compliance with.

File this under "i" for "ignore".

Within the category, classification or heading of.

England's World Cup dreams fell apart under a French onslaught on a night when their shortcomings were brutally exposed at the quarter-final stage.

2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France:

to collapse under stress; to give in under interrogation

(figuratively) In the face of; in response to (some attacking force).

J.K. Rowling has written a crime novel called 'The Cuckoo's Calling' under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

2013, The Huffington Post, JK Rowling Pseudonym: Robert Galbraith's 'The Cuckoo's Calling' Is Actually By Harry Potter Author:

He writes books under the name John Smith.

She now lives under a new identity.

Using or adopting (a name, identity, etc.).


pro

From Late Middle English pro, from Latin prō (“on behalf of”).

He is pro exercise but against physical exertion, quite a conundrum.


off

(older Received Pronunciation, General American) -ɔːf

From Middle English of, from Old English of, af, æf (“from, off, away”), from Proto-West Germanic *ab, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“from, off, back”). Doublet of of.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots of, af (“off, away”), West Frisian af, ôf (“off, away”), Dutch af (“off, from”), German Low German of (“off, from”), German ab (“off, from”), Danish af (“of, off”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish av (“of, off”), Icelandic af (“of, off”), Gothic 𐌰𐍆 (af, “of, from”); and with Latin ab (“of, from, by”), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “from”), and others.

-sta

used to indicate the location or direction of one thing relative to another

He's off the roof now.

I took it off the table.

Keep off the grass.

Not positioned upon, or away from a position upon.

The phone is off the hook

The coat fell off the peg.

He was thrown off the team for cheating.

We've been off the grid for three days now.

We're off their radar.

He's off the computer, but he's still on the phone.

Detached, separated, excluded or disconnected from; away from a position of attachment or connection to.

poissa

detached, separated, excluded or disconnected from

pois

His office is off this corridor on the right.

We're just off the main road.

Look! There's a UFO off our left wing!

Used to indicate the location or direction of one thing relative to another, implying adjacency or accessibility via.

The island is 23 miles off the cape.

Used to express location at sea relative to land or mainland.

-lta

used to express location at sea relative to land or mainland

There's 20% off the list price.

He's been off his feed since Tuesday.

He's off his meds again.

poissa (+ elative or ablative; cannot be used in all contexts, else use other phrasing, like "no longer taking meds")

He didn't buy it off him. He stole it off him.

(colloquial, more properly 'from') Out of the possession of.

Tantalum bar 6 off 3/8" Dia × 12" — Atom, Great Britain Atomic Energy Authority, 1972

samples submitted … 12 off Thermistors type 1K3A531 … — BSI test report for shock and vibration testing, 2000

I'd like to re-order those printer cartridges, let's say 5-off.

Placed after a number (of products or parts, as if a unit), in commerce or engineering.

The guy was off a perc.

The team won off a late-game fumble by an opposing player.

The economy is rising off the strength of the tech sector.


vice

From Latin vice (“in place of”), ablative form of vicis. Compare French fois (“time”) and Spanish vez (“time, turn”).

He was gardener and out-door man, vice Upton, resigned.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXI, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC:

A very small cab-boy, vice Stoopid retired, swung on behind Foker's vehicle; knock-kneed and in the tightest leather breeches.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXVIII, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC:

(chiefly dated) Instead of; in place of; versus.