ferninst

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Preposition

ferninst

1. (US, dialectal) Against.
   • 1917, Sinclair Lewis, The Innocents‎^[1]:

     Those pink-satin evening slippers simply lose all their display value when you stick those red-kid bed-slippers right up ferninst them that way.

   • 1893, Edward Eggleston, Duffels‎^[2]:

     "It's right ferninst where yer afther stan'in, up the stairs on the corner of Granefield Coort--over there, bedad."

   • 1874, Ambrose Bierce, Cobwebs From an Empty Skull‎^[3]:

     But Fate, as he expressed it in the vernacular, was "ferninst him."