Are older senses of “anent” still alive in any dialect?

Question

The obscure preposition anent has a long history, going back as far as Beowulf:

him on efn ligeð ealdorgewinna [line 2903] ("beside him lies his great enemy")

It has carried many meanings, including "near", "beside", "toward", "against", "among" and "on behalf of". Today the usual sense is "about" or "concerning", as in:

More movement on the seesaw anent the further transfer of powers to Holyrood - but no clear view yet of the endgame.

from the BBC's Brian Taylor. This meaning seems to remain alive in Scotland, and even elsewhere (though it may be seen as affected).

The OED has, as the only other non-obsolete sense, "Of position: fronting, opposite, over against, close against, close to" with the note that "many northern dialects now have fore-nent." Their most recent quotation is from The Dark Huntsman (Charles Heavysege, 1864):

The huntsman came after, full fleet as the wind,
Anent me a moment, tall, tarried behind

My question: Is this meaning of anent (or fore-nent) still current in any dialect of English - or should it now get the †dagger too?

Answer 1

I have not run across this term in my own dialects of English (American, West Coast), but I did find this in Wiktionary:

anent:

1. (obsolete) Against, in front of.

2. (archaic or dialectal, chiefly Scottish) Concerning, with regard to.

I am wary of blindly accepting Wiktionary as a source, but it may be that anent has fallen out of usage entirely. However, in 1913 it was still listed in Webster's dictionary, so the drop from usage may be after your last available cited quotation.

Answer 2

HP Lovecraft was still using the word anent in his letters to colleagues in the 30's. But he was well known for his archaic diction. So I'm not sure that's the best example.

Answer 3

Very much actively in use in contemporary Scottish writing & letters. Usefully short for tweeting, & part of a mild "Scots" revival, consequent upon a tide of constitutional politics in Scotland.

Answer 4

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has just decided to stop using "anent" in Church legislation. I'm a Scots lawyer and, although I don't think I've ever used "anent", I occasionally use "thereanent" in correspondence or formal documents.

Answer 5

Forenent was alive and well through the 70s at least here in Western Pennsylvania, home of the Scots Irish. I knew what it meant but I don't use it. My mother, age 91, might off and on.

Answer 6

I've never heard it, but the OED says it's "still common in northern dialect and in literary and legal Scotch".

Of some 15 definitions and sub-definitions for anent, all but two are daggered and obsolete and/or dialect:

• A.I.†1. Obs. or dial.
• A.I.†2. Obs. or dial.
• A.I.†3. Obs. or dial.
• A.I.†4. Obs.
• A.II.†5. Obs. rare.
• A.II.†6. Obs.
• A.III.7. Of position: fronting, opposite, over against, close against, close to. arch. or dial. In this sense many northern dialects have now fore-nent.
• A.III.†8. Obs.
• A.III.†9. Obs.
• A.III.†10.a. Obs.
• A.III.†10.†b. Obs.
• A.III.11 In respect or reference to, respecting, regarding, concerning, about. (Common in Scottish law phraseology, and affected by many English writers.)
• †B. Obs. or dial.

Their etymology explains:

The form-history of this wd. presents several points not fully explained; the primitive form is the Old English phrase on efen , on efn , on emn , with the dative = ‘on even (ground) with, on a level with,’ whence later side by side with , beside , face to face with , opposite , against , towards , in view of , etc.; cognate with Old Saxon an eban , Middle High German eneben , neben , and (with phonetic -t ) nebent . In English also a final -t had been developed by 1200, interchanging with -d , perhaps by form-assoc. with some other word. At the same time this extended form occurs with final -e and -es , after datival and genitival words like on-bute(n , on-ȝeanes . Following the latter class also, the final -s became in 14th cent. -st , giving anentist , anentst , anenst , as the midl. form, in literary use in 17th cent., and still dialectal. The north preserved the earlier anent , still common in northern dialect, and in literary and legal Scotch, whence not unfrequent in literary English during the 19th cent. The early form anende may have been influenced by the an-end adv. phr. an-end adv.; anont, anond(e, are not explained. The development of meaning is largely parallel to that of again, against.

Answer 7

I first came across it in Disraeli's letters to Lady Bradford, in 1874. Although this is much earlier than others have evinced, he uses it several times, without it seeming to be an obvious archaic contrivance.

Although I do not have the source with me, the context was "I and Salisbury spoke about the Turkish issue, then I wrote to the queen anent"

Answer 8

Anent was used in Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, here at the start of book 4’s chapter 11:

Mrs John Rokesmith sat at needlework in her neat little room, beside a basket of neat little articles of clothing, which presented so much of the appearance of being in the dolls’ dressmaker’s way of business, that one might have supposed she was going to set up in opposition to Miss Wren. Whether the Complete British Family Housewife had imparted sage counsel anent them, did not appear, but probably not, as that cloudy oracle was nowhere visible. For certain, however, Mrs John Rokesmith stitched at them with so dexterous a hand, that she must have taken lessons of somebody. Love is in all things a most wonderful teacher, and perhaps love (from a pictorial point of view, with nothing on but a thimble), had been teaching this branch of needlework to Mrs John Rokesmith.

Answer 9

All very interesting. I have just come across this word for the first time (and looked it up, having no idea what it meant). I found it in the foreword of an Ellery Queen book, The Roman hat mystery. The foreword was written in 1929 in New York although my copy of the book is not first edition. Anent was clearly a regularly used word then and there.

Answer 10

'Forenent' or 'Forenenst' is still in regular use by older people in Co. Meath, Ireland, where I grew up. In my youth in the 50s and 60s it was the only word in use in rural areas to indicate something 'directly opposite,’; 'in line with,' etc. Nowadays, its use is confined, in my experience, to those of us who had heard it used daily, but it is used mainly when speaking to another person of the same vintage- i.e., those who would understand its meaning without an explanation. One phrase I recall hearing was from an old woman: 'He was standing out there in the yard, right forenent the door." I believe it is a useful word that should be preserved in spoken and written form.

Answer 11

"Anent' is be found in " Scotland & nationalism* - Christopher harvie - routledge 1998 (3rd editn). Brian blancharde