forth

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɔːθ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɔɹθ/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /fo(ː)ɹθ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /foəθ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)θ
• Homophone: fourth

From Middle English forth, from Old English forþ, from Proto-West Germanic *forþ, from Proto-Germanic *furþą, from Proto-Indo-European *pŕ̥-to-, from *per-. Cognates include Dutch voort and German fort. See also ford.

forth (not comparable)

1. (formal, archaic) Forward in time, place or degree.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 159:

     From this time forth, I never will speak word.

   • 1709-1725, John Strype, Annals of the Reformation in England:

     say forth

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “ […] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.

2. (formal, archaic) Out into view; from a particular place or position.

   The plants in spring put forth leaves.

   The robbers leapt forth from their place of concealment.

   • 1949, Joseph Campbell, “The Hero and the God”, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

     A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: […]

3. (obsolete) Beyond a (certain) boundary; away; abroad; out.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:

     I have no mind of feasting forth to-night.

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 24:

     At the clashing of the cymbals the King sprang at Goldry as the panther springeth, and with the rush bare him backward and well nigh forth of the wrastling ground.

• fromward

forth

1. (obsolete) Forth from; out of.
   • a. 1631, John Donne, The Storme:

     Some forth their cabins peepe.

From fourth; compare forty.

forth

1. Misspelling of fourth.

forth

1. Misspelling of fourth.

• froth

• forð

From Proto-Germanic *furþą, from Proto-Indo-European *pr̥to-.

• IPA^(key): /fɔrθ/

forth

1. forwards, ; onward

forth

1. forward to, up to

• Middle Low German: fort, vort
  • German Low German: foort
  • → Danish: fort
  • → Norwegian: fort
  • → Swedish: fort