erstwhile

English

WOTD – 11 June 2009

Etymology

From erst (“first, formerly”) + while.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɜː(ɹ)st.waɪl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɝst.waɪl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

Adverb

erstwhile (not comparable)

1. (formal or literary) Formerly; in the past.

Synonyms

• erewhile

Translations

erstwhile — see also formerly

• Polish: dawniej (pl), kiedyś (pl), niegdyś (pl), ongiś (pl)

Adjective

erstwhile (not comparable)

1. (literary, law or India) Former, previous.

   Synonyms: former, once, previous, quondam, onetime; see also Thesaurus:former

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Disappearance of Count Collini”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     “Scarcely had Alice reached her twentieth birthday, than she gave her erstwhile fiancée^[sic] his formal congé. […]”

   • 1964 November, P. F. Winding, “Re-shaping the LMR's North Western Line - 2”, in Modern Railways, page 343:

     As an aftermath of the erstwhile competition between companies, 41 goods depots served the Liverpool and Birkenhead docks in 1923.

   • 2017 October 14, Paul Doyle, “Mauricio Pellegrino yet to find attacking solution for stuttering Southampton”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 October 2026:

     Other erstwhile stalwarts are also wavering. Southampton had two of the best full-backs in the league last season but Ryan Bertrand has been below par this season and Cédric Soares made an uncharacteristic lapse that led to Stoke’s winning goal in Southampton’s last outing.

2. (proscribed) Respected, honourable.
   • 1999 November 1, Frank Bruni, quoting George W. Bush, “For Bush, an Adjustable Speech Of Tested Themes and Phrases”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 7 April 2023:

     If you're for one of my erstwhile opponents, that's O.K. Just don't work too hard.

Usage notes

The use of erstwhile to mean “respected” stems from a conflation with esteemed in phrases such as erstwhile colleague and is proscribed by most authorities.

Translations

former, previous — see also former,‎ previous

• Azerbaijani: əvvəlki
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 以前嘅 (ji⁵ cin⁴ ge³), 過去嘅 / 过去嘅 (gwo³ heoi³ ge³)

• Czech: bývalý (cs), někdejší (cs)
• Dutch: voormalig (nl), vroeger (nl), toenmalig (nl)
• Esperanto: antaŭa
• Finnish: varhempi (fi), entinen (fi), aiempi (fi)
• French: ancien (fr), d'autrefois (fr)
• Galician: anterior (gl), previo
• German: vormalig (de), ehemalig (de), früher (de)
• Greek: πρώην (el) (próin)
• Norwegian: fordums
• Polish: były (pl), dawny (pl)
• Portuguese: anterior (pt)
• Russian: было́й (ru) (bylój), пре́жний (ru) (préžnij)
• Serbo-Croatian: пређашње c
• Swedish: tidigare (sv), föregående (sv), förre (sv), före detta (sv)
• Ukrainian: коли́шній (uk) (kolýšnij)

Anagrams

• wehrlites