whilere

adv
/ʍaɪˈlɛː/UK/ʍaɪˈleɹ/US

Etymology

From Middle English whil er, whileere [and other forms], whilom er (“some while ago or before, formerly”), from Old English hwīle ǣr, hwīlum ǣr, from hwīle (accusative singular of hwīl), hwīlum (“at some time in the past, once; sometimes”) (dative plural of hwīl (“period of time, a while”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest; peace, rest”)) + ǣr (“before”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *airiz (“before, earlier”)). The English word is analysable as while + ere.

  1. inherited from *airiz — “before, earlier
  2. inherited from *kʷyeh₁- — “to rest; peace, rest
  3. inherited from hwīle ǣr
  4. inherited from whil er

Definitions

  1. A while ago

    A while ago; a time before; formerly, previously.

    • VVe met that villen (God from him me bleſſe) / That curſed wight, from whom I ſcapt whyleare, / A man of hell, that cals himſelfe Deſpayre: […]
    • Thou mak'ſt me merry: I am full of pleaſure, / Let vs be iocond. Will you troule the Catch / You taught me but whileare?
    • He who with all Heav'ns heraldry whileare / Enter'd the world, now bleeds to give us eaſe; / Alas, how ſoon our ſin / Sore doth begin / His Infancy to ſeaſe!

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for whilere. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA