▪ I. † aˈgo, v. Obs.
Forms as in go.
[f. a- prefix 1 forth, away, out + go. Cogn. w. OS. âgangan, OHG. irgangan, irgân (mod.G. ergehen), Goth. us-gaggan. Only the pa. pple. agan, agon, agone, ago is common after 1300, and of this the verbal use ceased before 1700, leaving it only as adj. of time: see next.]
1. To go forth, go on, proceed.
| a 1000 Ags. Ps. lxviii. 32 Cealf..þeah þe him {uacu}pp-agá horn on heafde. 1297 R. Glouc. 561 Ich mai honge vp min ax, febliche ic abbe agonne. |
2. Of time: To depart, pass away, pass.
| c 1000 O.E. Gosp. Mark xvi. 1 Ða sæternes dæᵹ wæs agán. 1205 Layam. 24196 Þa æstre wes aȝonge. Ibid. 31889 Þa elleue ȝer weoren onfast aȝeongen. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 2305 Þe day hym was ful neȝ agan. c 1435 Torr. Portugal 65 Ore vij. yere be ago, More schalle we here. c 1550 Every man in Hazl. Dodsley I. 107 The day passeth, and is almost ago. |
3. To go away, depart (from a place).
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 33 Nis nawiht þeos weorld, al heo aȝeð. c 1230 Ancren Riwle 288 Hit kumeð lihtliche, ageð awei lihtliche. c 1260 E.E.P. (1862) 14 Al hir ioi was ago. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 365 He Was forthe vnto his shippes agoon. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 379 And when thaire huske agooth hem thai beth ripe. 1482 Monk of Evesham (1869) 112 The wownde so clene agonne, that no tokyn of hyt..remaynyd. 1586 J. Ferne Blazon of Gentrie 21 Our sheepe shearing feastes..been all agone. 1674 Marvell Rehears. Transp. ii. 76 The Author therefore..took a great fright lest all were ago. |
▪ II. ago, agone, ppl. a. and adv.
(əˈgəʊ, əˈgɒn)
Forms: 4–5 agoon, 5–6 agon, 6– agone; also 4–6 agoo, 6–7 agoe, 4– ago.
[pa. pple. of the preceding vb., used as adj. qualifying some noun of time, expressed or understood; in the latter case always preceded by long = long time. The full form agone had been contracted to ago in some dialects long before this usage began, in end of 14th c.; ago became the ordinary prose form from Caxton, but agone has remained dialectally, and as an archaic and poetic variant to the present day.]
A. ppl. adj. Gone by; by-gone; past. (Now always follows its noun.)
| c 1314 Guy Warw. 58 For it was ago fif yer That he was last ther. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's T. 7 (Lansd.) I speke of mony a hundred ȝere a-go. 1388 Wyclif Gen. xxi. 2 As ȝistirdai, and the thridde dai agoon. c 1450 Knt. de la Tour 158 It is not yet longe tyme agoo that suche custume was vsed. 1528 More Heresyes ii. Wks. 1557, 179/2 Nowe quite gone manye yeares a goo. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. v. i. 204 O he's drunke, sir Toby, an houre agone. 1611 Bible 1 Sam. xxx. 13 Three dayes agone I fell sicke. 1718 Free-thinker No. 61, 42 Some Years agoe they were remarkable for the narrowest Hats in the Kingdom. a 1849 Hor. Smith Addr. Mummy i, In Thebes's streets three thousand years ago. 1846 Hawthorne Mosses i. iv. 70 And that's full fifteen minutes agone. 1869 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. xxi. 212 Some two and forty years agone the good count rode hence to fight for Holy Cross. 1914 W. Owen Let. 19 July (1967) 267 So you are at last getting the Curtains, about which we fidaddled so long a year & more agone! 1933 H. Allen Anthony Adverse I. ii. xiii. 170 It's over ten years agone, you know, since... 1980 Amer. Speech 1976 LI. 245 Among recent coinages I miss admanity, a worthy successor to Thomas Carlyle's gigmanity a century agone. |
B. adv. in Long ago: a long while ago, in time long gone, long since. Chaucer has also yore ago.
| c 1366 Chaucer Compl. Pite 1 Pite that I haue sought so yore agoo. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 271, I þis lord knowe, it is longe ago I knewe him. 1417 Clifford in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 29 I. 90 It liked to youre seyd Hyghnesse not longe agon to wryte to me. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Paraphr. Matt. xvi. 2 Ye would haue beleued me long agon. 1633 Ford Broken Heart iii. v. (1839) 63 'Tis long agone since first I lost my heart. 1833 H. Martineau Loom & Lug. i. v. 89 Dead and gone long ago. |
¶ Corrupt form. See a prep.2
| c 1538 Starkey England 88 Not many yerys of-goo. |