† to-gainsto-gainstto-yenstprep.conj.

Etymology: Old English tógægnes , tógéanes , etc., formed, with adverbial genitive -es , on the simpler *tógægn , tógeægn , < to prep. + gægn < *gagn- , gęgn- ‘against’, the second element also of again adv., prep., and conj., against prep., conj., adv., and n. In this word, the simpler tógeægn was nearly superseded by the form in -es, and was rare both in Old English and Middle English: see the γ-forms above. In the 15th cent., to-ȝenes began to be strengthened by adding -t, as in agains-t, amids-t, amongs-t (apparently after superlatives); if the word had survived into modern English, its form would have been to-yenst or to-yainst; being entirely southern, it never had hard g, as in again, against.