Definition of quondam in English:
quondam
adjective ˈkwɒndamˈkwɒndəm
formal attributive That once was; former.
quondam dissidents joined the establishment
Example sentencesExamples
- Whiston's openness in this regard is likely one of the reasons Newton eventually broke with his quondam disciple.
- To this quondam mid-Warwickshire suburbanite, who liked to think that his Cotswold relatives conferred a kind of rusticity, it brought back his own first encounter with Bristol some time in the spring of 1956, just turned seventeen.
- According to his brief official biography, this quondam insurance broker entered the House of Lords a year after inheriting a title from his grandfather, in 1986.
- Thus they would not have mindlessly and naively misjudged the imperialist treaty diplomacy of the Soviet Union, quondam ally of Nazi Germany.
Synonyms
one-time, erstwhile, sometime, late, as was
Origin
Late 16th century: from Latin, 'formerly'.