Word of the Day

again

Again

Old English

Old English/ˈon.jeːan/Modern English/əˈɡɛn/
Old English ongean once meant opposite and only later meant once more.

The word again began its life as ongean in Old English, meaning something like opposite to or toward. It was a compound of on and gean, where gean carried the sense of facing or against. Wulfstan used it in the early 1000s to mean back or in return, not repetition. The shift from spatial opposition to temporal repetition took centuries.

4 stops · from Jutland, northern Europe to London, England

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