Ere
adv, conj, contraction, name, noun, prep, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Obsolete form of ear. alt-of, obsolete
"As plesaunt to the ere as the blacke sanctus Of a sad sorte vpon a mery pyn."
- 1 At an earlier time. not-comparable, obsolete
"Thys is he of whome I ſpake / he that cõmeth after me / was befoꝛe me be cauſe he was yer thẽ I."
- 1 Before; sooner than. archaic, poetic
"My ſelfe was ſtirring ere the breake of day, […]"
- 1 before. archaic, poetic
"Syꝛ, come downe ere my child die."
- 1 A contraction of is, there, and the indefinite article. Mainly used in questions. Ireland, contraction, informal
"'Ere bit o' bacon in it, Kathleen?"
- 1 A language spoken on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Example
More examples"In the act of offering up his last prayer ere he made up his mind to float and be eaten, he saw a man look over the quarter of the brig : he raised both his hands ; he jumped himself up in the water, and, by the singularity of his motions fortunately attracted notice."
Etymology
From Middle English er, from Old English ǣr (adverb, conjunction, and preposition), from Proto-West Germanic *airi, from Proto-Germanic *airiz, comparative of Proto-Germanic *airi (“early”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éyeri (“day, morning”) (compare Avestan 𐬀𐬫𐬀𐬭 (ayar, “day”), Gk. ἠέριος (ēérios, “at daybreak”), see also era, Albanian herët (“early in the morning, at daybreak”) ). The adverb erstwhile retains the Old English superlative ǣrest (“earliest”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian eer (“before”), Dutch eer (“before, sooner than”), German ehe (“before”).
Formed from is + there + a/an.
Related phrases
More for "ere"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.