Talk:æfre

Etymology/Reconstruction

Could also represent a compound comprising of earlier Germanic *aiwa-, "eternity, age" + *firi, "through, across; very", therefore the meaning would be "through or across eternity". The postposed preposition is a little strange, but it could be an archaic use of *firi in such set phrases, and would then be quite similarly formed to Latin semper, "through-all/always"; although the OE can't be ruled out as being modeled after the Latin phrase either. Burgundaz (talk) 07:08, 10 August 2021 (UTC)