bygone means having been or happened in the distant past. It carries an Arena rating of 1600, earned across 10 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bygone ranks #858 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,059 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,615 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #4,104 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
bygone is pronounced /ˈbaɪɡɒn/.
Why “bygone” is a great word
Belonging to or having happened in a past time. From the Middle English phrase 'by gone', meaning 'that which has gone by'; first attested in 1424. Unlike "ancient," which implies a remote, geological antiquity, or "obsolete," which denotes a thing officially superseded, "bygone" is a gentler, more wistful adjective for any receded moment. It is the forgotten scent of a childhood home, the rusted toy in the long grass, or the specific tilt of afternoon light in a room you will never enter again—the past not discarded, but glowing faintly in the hand of memory, a quiet acknowledgment that what has gone by will not come again.
Etymology
From by (adverb) + gone. See go by.
adj
- Having been or happened in the distant past.
noun
- An event that happened in the past.
- An object from the past; a relic, antique, etc.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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