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forby

UK /fəˈbʌɪ/obsolete

forby is an adjective meaning “Uncommon; out of the ordinary; extraordinary; superior” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-R-B-Y and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 69 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does forby mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    ScotlandUKarchaicUncommon; out of the ordinary; extraordinary; superior.

    He's a forbye man.

adverb

  1. 1

    ScotlandUKarchaicPast; by; beyond.

  2. 2

    ScotlandUKarchaicUncommonly; exceptionally.

    He was forby kind.

preposition

  1. 1

    ScotlandUKarchaicBeyond; past; more than; greater than; over and above; moreover.

  2. 2

    ScotlandUKarchaicPast; gone by; over.

  3. 3

    ScotlandUKarchaicNear; beside; by, close to.

  4. 4

    ScotlandUKarchaicOn one side; out of the way.

  5. 5

    ScotlandUKarchaicBesides; in addition to; as well as; not to mention.

    There was other six forby me.

  6. 6

    ScotlandUKarchaicWith the exception of; not taking into account.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce forby?

  • UK /fəˈbʌɪ/

Forby has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Forms of forby

  • more forby comparative
  • most forby superlative
  • foreby
  • forbye

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is forby?

Forby appears about once in every 69 million words in written English, the 262,293rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Where does forby come from?

From Middle English forby, forbi, of Middle Low German or North Germanic origin, equivalent to fore- + by. Compare Saterland Frisian foarbie (“beyond, past”), West Frisian foarby (“over, beyond, past”), Dutch voorbij (“beyond, past”), Low German vörbi, vörbie (“over, up, gone, finished, past”), German vorbei (“over, gone, past”), Danish forbi, Swedish förbi. More at fore, by.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).