forgo - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English forgon (“to go by, pass up”), from Old English forgān (“to go away, forgo”); equivalent to for- +‎ go.

forgo (third-person singular simple present forgoes, present participle forgoing, simple past forwent or (nonstandard) forgoed, past participle forgone or (nonstandard) forwent or (nonstandard) forgoed) (transitive)

To do without (something enjoyable); to relinquish.
I've had to forgo my student discount in exchange for taking the job.
- 1960 February, “Talking of Trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 67:
  Mr. Hoyle, who does not believe many multiple-unit diesel services on secondary routes will resist for ever the road transport challenge, would forgo passenger traffic altogether on a little-used route in order to improve the quality of the freight working and reduce its costs by equating the average speed of all trains on the line concerned.
- 1986, New York Magazine, volume 19, number 49, page 20:
  You might think that Americans buy roughly the same number of fitted sheets as flats. Or, considering the market for electric blankets, duvets, and other covers, that consumers buy even more bottom sheets, simply forgoing the tops.
(literary) To refrain from, to abstain from.
I shall forgo actually stepping inside, thank you.

Although the form forgoed is nonstandard, it is used by many educated speakers whose speech and writing is close to standard English and who would not use forms such as goed or undergoed. Other speakers may have difficulty forming an acceptable simple past of this verb, considering both forgoed and forwent to be linguistically unnatural.[1]
Not to be confused with forego (“go before”), though forego (“do without”) is also sometimes used as an alternative spelling of forgo.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 13:
[…] Doe not for one repulſe forgoe the purpoſe / That you resolu'd t' effect.
forgoable
forgoer

to do without

^ Hock, Hans Henrich (25 October 2021), “6: Analogical and phonological change”, in Principles of Historical Linguistics (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs; 34), third edition, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 213