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for-¹

  • /fɔː(ɹ)/
  • /fə(ɹ)/ unstressed

Where it comes from

From Middle English for-, vor-, ver-, from Old English for-, fer-, fær-, fyr- (“far, away, completely”, prefix), from the merger of Proto-Germanic *fra- ("away, away from"; see fro, from) and Proto-Germanic *fur-, *far- (“through, completely, fully”), from Proto-Indo-European *pro-, *per-, *pr-. Cognate with Scots for-, West Frisian fer-, for-, Dutch ver-, German ver-, Swedish för-, Danish for-, Norwegian for-, Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰- (fra-), Latin pro-. More at for.

prefix

  1. idiomatic, morpheme Forth: prefixed to verbs to indicate a direction of 'away', 'off', 'forth'. forsteal
  2. idiomatic, morpheme Exhausting: prefixed to verbs with the sense of wearing or exhausting oneself. forsing
  3. idiomatic, morpheme Destructively: prefixed to verbs with the sense of destruction or pain. forhang
  4. idiomatic, morpheme Wrongly: prefixed to verbs with the sense of wrongly, amorally. forteach
  5. idiomatic, morpheme Neglectfully: prefixed to verbs with the sense of abstaining from or neglecting. forslip
  6. idiomatic, morpheme Very: intensifying adjectives. forblack
  7. idiomatic, morpheme Making: prefixed to verbs to indicate the subject takes the character of the verb. fordote
  8. idiomatic, morpheme Excessively: prefixed to verbs with the sense of doing so in excessive or overwhelm. forwax
  9. idiomatic, morpheme Excluding: prefixed to verbs to give the sense of prohibition or exclusion. forjudge
  10. idiomatic, morpheme Intensively forbeat
  11. idiomatic, morpheme Thoroughly: prefixed to verbs with the sense of thoroughly, all over. forgrow

for-²

Where it comes from

From Old English for-, which is identical with the preposition "for". In "Old English and Middle English it occurs frequently as a variant of fore- prefix, with the senses ‘before’, ‘in front’, ‘on behalf of’, etc.; cf. Old English for-, forecuman to come before, Middle English forganger and foreganger n."

prefix

  1. alternative, morpheme Alternative form of fore- forstand

for-³

Where it comes from

"Occurring only in words adopted from French, as forcatch v., forfeit n., forprise n., represents Old French for-, fors-, identical with fors adv. (modern French hors) outside, out."

prefix fore-

  1. morpheme, rare Outside, out. foreclose

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Cite this
MLA

"for-." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/for-. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

for-. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/for-

Chicago

"for-." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/for-.

BibTeX
@misc{for_2026,
  title = {for-},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/for-},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}