foregone, ppl. a.
(fɔəˈgɒn, -ɔː-)
[f. fore- prefix + gone, pa. pple. of go.]
That has gone before or gone by; (of time) past.
| c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. xxx, Then can I grieve at grievances foregone. 1656 Cowley Pindar. Odes i. iii, With Oblivion's silent Stroke deface Of foregone Ills the very Trace. 1794 Burke Rep. Lord's Jrnls. Wks. 1842 II. 610 With no light from any principle, precedent, or foregone authority of law. 1824 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Capt. Jackson, A bare scrag—cold savings from the foregone meal. 1870 Lowell Cathedral Poet. Wks. (1879) 441/2 This has made poets dream of lives foregone In worlds fantastical. |
b. foregone conclusion: a Shaksperian phrase, variously interpreted by commentators (see conclusion 15). Now used for: A decision or opinion already formed before the case is argued or the full evidence known (hence foregone intention, foregone opinion, etc.); also, a result or upshot that might have been foreseen as inevitable.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 428. 1821 Lamb Elia Ser. i. New Year's Eve, I plunge into foregone visions and conclusions. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. iii. 286 Starting always with a foregone conclusion, he arrived of course where he wished to arrive. 1868 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 186 The Archbishop was simply carrying out..the foregone intention of the King. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 387 That struggle was heroic..but the conclusion was foregone. |
Hence foreˈgoneness. (nonce-wd.)
| 1892 Athenæum 6 Aug. 191/2 [The book is] affected..by the ‘foregoneness’ of its conclusion. |