anear
See also: an ear
English
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
From a- (“away, off, from, of”) + near (adverb), perhaps partly after afar, anew, etc. Compare earlier (as adverb) anigh.[1]
Preposition
anear
- Near.
- 1860, Isaac Taylor, “(please specify the page)”, in Ultimate Civilization and Other Essays, London: Bell and Daldy […], →OCLC:
- the measure of misery anear us
- 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
- And soon I heard a roaring wind: / It did not come anear; / But with its sound it shook the sails, / That were so thin and sere.
- 1870–1874, James Thomson, “The City of Dreadful Night”, in The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems, London: Reeves and Turner, […], published 1880, →OCLC, part XXI, stanza 1, page 51:
- Anear the centre of that northern crest / Stands out a level upland bleak and bare, […]
- 1907, Helen Elizabeth Coolidge, Poems:
- As slowly, one by one, / The stars appear, / My burdened heart I lift, / And feel to God anear.
Adverb
anear
- (obsolete) Nearly.
Etymology 2
From a- (“onward, away”; intensifying prefix) + near (verb). Compare Middle English aneiȝen.[2]
Verb
anear (third-person singular simple present anears, present participle anearing, simple past and past participle aneared)
- (obsolete) To approach.
References
- ^ “anear, prep. and adv.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- ^ “anear, v.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.