prep. phr. (colloquial or dialectical).—On account of; owing to; pertaining to; about: also (formerly) ALONG ON. [The O.E.D. traces the phrase back to Anglo-Saxon times: KING ALFRED (880). ÆLFRIC (c. 1000); Beket (c. 1300), from which period the history is continued infra].

1

  1369.  CHAUCER, Troylus and Cryseyde, ii. 1001.

        On me is not ALONG thin evil fare.
    Ibid. (1383), The Canterbury Tales, 16398.
I can not tell WHEREON it was ALONG,
But wel I wot gret strif is us among.

2

  1489.  CAXTON, Faytes of Armes, I. viii. 19. Whome it is ALONGE or causeth.

3

  1530.  PALSGRAVE, Langue Francoyse, 427. 2. I am LONGE of this stryfe: je suis en cause de cest estrif.

4

  c. 1570.  THYNNE, The Debate between Pride and Lowliness (1841), 56. The villain sayth it is all LONG of me.

5

  1581.  STAFFORD, Examination of Complaints, 16 (New Shaks. Soc.). Complaining of general poverty, he says: ‘WHEREOF it is LONGE, I cannot well tell.’

6

  1601.  HOLLAND, Pliny, 25 [MORRIS, Elementary Lessons in Historical English Gramma, 198]. And that is LONG OF contrarie causes.

7

  1602.  The Returne from Parnassus [ARBER], Prol. 3. It’s all LONG ON you.

8

  1611.  SHAKESPEARE, Cymbeline, v. 5. 271.

        Oh, she was naught; and LONG OF her it was,
That we meet here so strangely.

9

  1767.  H. BROOKE, The Fool of Quality (1792), II. 88. ’Tis all ALONG OF you that I am thus haunted.

10

  1805.  SCOTT, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, V. xxix. Dark Musgrave, it was LONG OF thee.

11

  1858.  DICKENS, Christmas Stories, ‘Going into Society,’ 65. Would he object, to say why he left it? Not at all; why should he? He left it ALONG OF a dwarf.

12

  1881.  W. BLACK, The Beautiful Wretch, xviii. Mayhap the concert didn’t come off, ALONG OF the snow.

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