fornent - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
fornent, fernenst, fernent, fernenth, ferninst, fernint, forenenst, forenent, fornense, forninst, furnentz prep Alongside, near, against; opposite, in front of, facing. [fore adv + anent; oed fornent, fornenst prep 1 ‘right opposite to, over against, facing’ Scottish and northern; dost fornent prep 1 ‘in front of, over against, opposite’ 1429→; dare fornent prep 1 ‘opposite to, in front of, against, near; in front, opposite’ chiefly Midland]
Ulst.:
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 40 fornenst = opposite to, in exchange for.
1891 Simmons Armagh Words and Phrases 8 fornent, fornenst = opposite to, in front of.
1895 MacManus Leadin’ Road 147 I had a corn on my feet fornense ivery day of the week.
c1910 Byers Glossary: fornenst = opposite to, facing, over against, in exchange for: ‘There it’s joost (just) forninst you’ or ‘It’s straight forninst ye’.
1910 Joyce English in Ireland 258 fornent = opposite: ‘He and I sat fornenst each other in the carriage’.
1920 Gregory Ulster Songs 42 They sentenced him tae be hung, at dawn, / Furnenst his own house in Islandmagee.
1923 Lutton Montiaghisms 21 for-nent = opposite to, face to face, in the presence of.
1935 Megaw Carragloon 46 They started cloddin’ [each] other forninst our gate and ye never heard the names they were callin’ [each] other.
1936 White Mrs Murphy 110 The first thing that I see is that oul eyesore there fornenst me.
1942 Bangor Words 32 fornenst = opposite: ‘They were sitting fornenst one another’.
1953 Traynor Donegal Glossary 109 forenent = (1) opposite, directly in front of; (2) in opposition to; (3) corresponding to, for.
1981 Pepper Ulster-English Dict 30 Ye cudn’t miss it. It’s fernenst the Post Office.
1990 McIntyre Some Handlin’ 25 forenenst = opposite: ‘The church is forenenst the school’.
1993 Montgomery Barnish 21 fornenst = opposite, in front of.
1998 Dolan Dict Hiberno-English 112 Things will aye be some way, if they shouldnae be fornenst ither.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 93 fornenst = facing, directly opposite; in lieu of, in payment of: ‘That’s fornenst the things A got last week’.
U.S.:
1829 Kirkham English Grammar 192 furnentz = opposite. Common … in Pennsylvania.
1835 Crockett Account 153 I walked with them to a room nearly fornent the old state-house.
1859 Bartlett Americanisms 160 fornent = opposite to. This Scottish word is much used in Pennsylvania and the Western States.
1904-07 Kephart Notebooks 4:749 Just afore it got quite fernent me, I shot.
1930 Shoemaker 1300 Penn Words 22 ferninst = against, in contact with anything.
1939 Hall Coll He lived over fernint the store.
1943 Bewley Picturesque Speech 4 The word fernent should, I believe, be spelt ‘ferninst’. A good old Irish word meaning ‘alongside’, though some say it means ‘opposite’.
1967 DARE Coll = opposite to; very close, only a short distance away.
c1975 Lunsford It Used To Be 174 ‘Fernenth’ means beyond and opposite, as ‘Look yonder fernenth that sassafras and find my mattock’.
