adv. (and a.) Also 3–4 biforen hond(e, 4–6 before hand(e, 4 bi-, by-, be-forhand, biforand. [Originally two words, before hand, also before the hand, perhaps from the idea of one working before the hand of another, and so in anticipation of his action. But cf. L. præ manu, manibus, ‘at hand, in readiness, in hand,’ used in ME. as = ‘beforehand.’]
1. In anticipation of something so as to be ready for it; in advance.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 212. Heo beoð þe lesse te menen, þet heo biuoren hond leorneð hore meister to makien grimme chere.
1534. Tindale, 2 Cor. ix. 5. To come before honde [Wyclif bifor] vnto you for to prepare youre good blessynge.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., Pref. He … was so skylfull in Astronomie, and coulde tell before hande of Eclipses.
1611. Bible, Mark xiii. 11. Take no thought before hand what ye shall speake.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 86, ¶ 1. I thought it proper to acquaint you before-hand … that you might not be surpriz’d therewith.
1875. B. Taylor, Faust, I. iv. 78. Prepare beforehand for your part.
b. spec. in reference to payment in advance.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 301. [Ich halde hym ouer-hardy oþer elles nouht trewe, Þat pre manibus ys payed.]
c. 1450. Henryson, Tale of Dog, 88. Ane soume I payit haif befoir the hand.
1552. Huloet, Before handes, præ manibus.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 32. To pay a yeere or two yeeres rent before hande.
1755. Smollett, Quix. (1803), IV. 129. He demanded two ducats for the job, and they paid him beforehand.
Mod. maxim. There are two bad payers—he that pays beforehand, and he that never pays at all.
c. To be beforehand with: to anticipate, to be earlier than; to outstrip or forestall in action. (In this and the next, often used adjectively.)
1595. Shaks., John, V. vii. 111. Let vs pay the time but needfull woe, Since it hath beene before hand with our greefes.
a. 1619. Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng., 30. Then was he beforehand with Pope Alexander … promising likewise to hold it … of the Apostolique Sea.
1701. W. Wootton, Hist. Rome, i. 203. If you are not before-hand with them, you will perish.
1863. Mrs. C. Clarke, Shaks. Char., ix. 222. Like Napoleon, he knew the value of being beforehand with an enemy.
d. To be beforehand, to be beforehand with the world, to have something beforehand: to have more than sufficient to meet present demands; to have money in hand for future contingencies; to have the balance on the right side. So to bring, get beforehand. All arch.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 133. He wyll … labour diligently to brynge hym selfe beforehande agayn, & to recouer his losse.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (1857), 13. [They] regard not to lay up anything, or to haue it before hand.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), III. 9. Hee is the happy man who can square his mind to his means … he who is before hand with the world.
1651. Featly, in Fuller’s Abel Rediv. (1867), II. 228. He brought the college much beforehand, which before … was very much impoverished.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 450, ¶ 3. Having little or nothing beforehand, and living from Hand to Mouth.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 59. I now began to think of getting a little beforehand.
c. 1812. Miss Austen, Sense & Sens. (1849), 25. I shall see how much I am beforehand with the world in the spring.
† 2. Before this or that, previously. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3393. His sede suld multipli, als godd him had biforand hiht. Ibid., 6512. He tok him tablis of þe lay, As ȝe herd me bifor-hand say.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xxviii. 19. The cyte Bethel, that biforn hoond was clepid Luza.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, IV. i. (1483), 58. This appel was hanged vpon this drye tree whiche that grewe before hand vpon this grene florisshynge tree.
a. 1520. Myrr. Our Ladye, 186. As I haue sayde ofte before hande.
† B. as adj. Ready, prepared. Obs. rare.
1692. L’Estrange, Fables, 6 (J.). What’s a Man’s Contending with Insuperable Difficulties, but the Rolling of Sisiphus’s Stone up the Hill, which is sure before hand, to Return upon him again?
