What is the origin of the golf term “Fore!”?
Fore! is a warning shout in golf when a wildly struck ball threatens person(s) ahead – misunderstood by many to be ‘four’, the word is certainly ‘fore’, which logically stems from the Middle English meaning of fore as ‘ahead’ or ‘front’, as in forearm, forerunner, foreman, foremost, etc., or more particularly ‘too far forward’ in the case of an overhit ball. Sources suggest the golf term was in use by the late 1870’s. The use of the ‘fore’ prefix in the context of a warning or pre-emptive action was established long ago in similar senses: forewarn, foretell, foreshadow, forestall, and foresee, etc., (foresee actually dates back to the 1200’s).
