aforetime

adv

1. (archaic, not-comparable)In time past; in a former time; formerly.

   “Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great river of sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I called to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to myself, "Needs must I make another; haply I may free me from this strait.[…]"”

   “She and the Tertium Quid enjoyed each other's society among the graves of men and women whom they had known and danced with aforetime.”

adj

1. (archaic, not-comparable)Former.

   “To him, despite the housekeeper, there was an impropriety in Ursula, the elderly ex-parson, and Andrew living under the one roof - a matter that, for all his aforetime vigilance, had escaped Mr. Civil.”

noun

1. (archaic)A former time.

   “In the modern kitchen waste is guarded against as strenuously as ever in the aforetimes; but the remnants are used with knowledge—with a scientific attention to flavor and to the nature of the ingredients.”

   “The aforetime of stereotyping residence styles, so to speak, has been abandoned altogether, and, inside of uniformity, variety is sought to be developed by the architects.”

   “Prov. 8:23 מקַּדמי ארץ really means from all the aforetimes of the earth.”

   “Joue contre joue deux gueuses en leur détresse roidie; / La gelée et le vent ne les ont point instruites, les ont négligées; / Enfants d’arrière-histoire / Tombées des saisons dépassantes et serrées là debout.”