agoneadj.adv.

OE Wærferð tr. Gregory Dialogues (Corpus Cambr.) (1900) iv. lvii. 345 Þa sona se prafost eode & us hyrde, to þon þæt we gymdon us oþera wisena, & na ne rimdon..þa aganan dagas.

eOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Parker) anno 745 Her Danihel forþferde; þa was xliii wintra agan siþþan he onfeng biscepdome.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 171 Moni ȝer was agan seo[ð]ðen [MS seodðen] his cun hider com.]

c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Prioress's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 199 I sholde haue dyed, ye longe tyme agoon.

c1405 (c1385) G. Chaucer Knight's Tale (Ellesmere) (1868) l. 2784 Many a day agon.

a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Gen. xxi. 2 As ȝistirdai, and the thridde dai agoon.

1564 Sir T. Chaloner in J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (1879) VIII. 45/1 [I am] now further from wealth..than I was eighteen years agone. Methinks I became a retrograde crab.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) v. i. 196 O he's drunke sir Toby an houre agone . View more context for this quotation

1669 I. Newton Let. 18 May in Corr. (1959) I. 11 Perhaps too it may bee done in Italy; For about 20 or 30 years agone there was a certain Vitriol came from thence.

1701 J. Flamsteed Let. 24 June in I. Newton Corr. (1967) IV. 369 I would not have remembered wt passed 30 months agone.

1762 P. Collinson Let. 25 July in J. Bartram Corr. (1992) 566 The Basteria my good Friend Lambol Sent Mee many years agon. It is a fine Bush & flowers plentyfully every year.

1846 N. Hawthorne Mosses i. iv. 70 And that's full fifteen minutes agone.

1884 M. A. Curtois Story of Meg I. viii. 145 She lived here in this very mortal house, and left it agone two year and more.

1914 W. Owen Let. 19 July (1967) 267 So you are at last getting the Curtains, about which we fidaddled so long a year & more agone!

1933 H. Allen Anthony Adverse xiii. 170 It's over ten years agone, you know, since...

1980 Amer. Speech 1976 51 245 Among recent coinages I miss admanity, a worthy successor to Thomas Carlyle's gigmanity a century agone.

2009 G. Gilman Cloud & Ashes 338 But thou shouldst have seen our Mistress Master Morland leap my lady's part. Five-and-thirty year agone, that would ha' been.

1420 R. Clifford in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. I. 90 It liked to youre seyd Hyghnesse not longe agon to wryte to me.

c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) ii. l. 2357 (MED) I had a visioun But late agoon, as I ley and slepe.

a1450 (?c1421) J. Lydgate Siege Thebes (Arun.) (1911) l. 210 (MED) The walles reised weren a-lofte..Ful ȝoor agon.

a1500 (?c1440) J. Lydgate Horse, Goose & Sheep (Lansd.) l. 16 in Minor Poems (1934) ii. 540 (MED) Nat yoor a-gon.

1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Matt. in Paraphr. New Test. xvi. 2 Ye would haue beleued me long agon.

1593 M. Drayton Idea 57 Sooth-saying Sibels sleepen long agone.

1633 J. Ford Broken Heart iii. i. sig. G1^v 'Tis long agone since first I lost my heart.

1664 S. Butler Hudibras: Second Pt. ii. iii. 154 He knew..Which Socrates, and Chærephon In vain, assaid so long agon.

1696 in T. B. Howell Compl. Coll. State Trials (1812) XIII. 521/1 How long is it agone, Mr. Heyden?

1771 G. Colman Fairy Prince i. 4 Is he such a princely one As you spake him long agone?

1847 R. Southey & C. A. Southey Robin Hood 109 A book was lent me long agone.

a1894 R. L. Stevenson St. Ives (1898) xxi. 162 Why, no longer agone than this morning, he was sitting breakfasting and reading in his paper.

1922 Amer. Artisan & Hardware Rec. 12 Aug. 129/3 Perhaps as far in the future as the ancient Egyptian days are agone,..the Metropolitan Museum of the future will contain relics of our then bygone age.

1964 J. Berryman 77 Dream Songs 83 In a modesty of death I join my father who dared so long agone leave me.

2006 M. D. Hahn Witch Catcher xv. 153 Yer kind been using them since old times back and back and long agone.