English

forelook

Forelook comes from Middle English vorloken.

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

Earliest quotation: 1859, Edward Everett Hale, My Double; and How He Undid Me: “[T]o do one's best on Sunday to interweave that…”

Formed from fore- + look

Proto-Indo-European *per- ‘before, formerly’

Proto-Germanic *fura- ‘before, in front of, for’

Proto-West Germanic *forē- ‘before, in front of, fore-, pre-’

English fore-

Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn ‘to look’

Old English lōcian ‘to look’

Middle English loken ‘to look’

English look

Every English word from Middle English vorloken

verb To look beforehand, to preview.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.