forewinter

English

Etymology

From fore- +‎ winter. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fóarwinter (“forewinter”), West Frisian foarwinter (“forewinter”), Dutch voorwinter (“forewinter”), German Vorwinter (“forewinter”), Danish forvinter (“forewinter”), Swedish förvinter (“forewinter”), Icelandic forvetur (“forewinter”).

Noun

forewinter (plural forewinters)

1. The period immediately preceding or leading up to winter.
   • 2010, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, page 381:

     Anybody seeing him all that forewinter long going about the sadder verges of the city might have rightly wondered what his trade was, this refugee reprieved from the river and its fishes. Haunting the streets in a castoff peacoat.

2. The early part of winter.
   • 2013, H. H. Lamb, Climate: Present, Past and Future:

     The Early Winter, or Forewinter, period has a much less easily defined character, being dominated by alternations of progressive (W'ly or cyclonic) and blocked (anticyclonic) periods in Europe, […]