Ago

How to spell ago

3 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ago

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ago mean?

1. adverbBefore the present time; in the past.

Ago in a sentence

• The meeting finished an hour ago.

• They bought the house several years ago.

Where does ago come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the Old English agan, meaning 'to pass away' or 'go by', which combined an intensive prefix with the verb gan, 'to go'. Its earliest sense was literally something that had gone or passed, applied to stretches of time that had moved into the past. By the Middle English period the past participle 'agone' was shortened to 'ago', losing its final syllable in everyday speech and writing. This is why the modern word ends simply in '-go' rather than the fuller spelling its ancestor once carried. It is a close native relative of the still-surviving 'gone', sharing the same Germanic root for movement.

How the word is built

• a- (intensive prefix from Old English of-)
• go (from gan, to pass away)