erstwhile

Former, previous.

Adjective

  1. Former, previous.
    • “Scarcely had Alice reached her twentieth birthday, than she gave her erstwhile fiancée^([sic]) his formal congé.[…]” - 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Disappearance of Count Collini”, in The Case of...
    • As an aftermath of the erstwhile competition between companies, 41 goods depots served the Liverpool and Birkenhead docks in 1923. - 1964 November, P. F. Winding, “Re-shaping the LMR's North Western Line - 2”, in Modern...
    • Other erstwhile stalwarts are also wavering. Southampton had two of the best full-backs in the league last season but Ryan Bertrand has been below par this season and Cédric Soares made an uncharacteristic lapse that...

    Synonyms: former once previous quondam onetime antecedent anterior earlier erstwhile ex foregone hitherto old olden past preceding precedent prior sometime used-to-be whilom

  2. Respected, honourable.
    • If you're for one of my erstwhile opponents, that's O.K. Just don't work too hard. - 1999 November 1, Frank Bruni, quoting George W. Bush, “For Bush, an Adjustable Speech Of Tested Themes and Phrases”, in New York Times:

Origin

Etymology tree English erst English while English erstwhile From erst (“first, formerly”) + while.

Adverb

  1. Formerly; in the past.

Synonyms

erewhile