adv. arch. [f. ERST + WHILE adv. (The stress is variable.)] Some while ago, formerly. Also † Erstwhiles [see WHILES], in same sense.
1569. Spenser, Sonn., ix. in Van der Noodt’s Theatre for Worldlings. Which erstwhile [later edd. earst] so pleasaunt scent did yelde.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., III. xix. 71. [They] resist the truth erstwhile by them professed.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 184. Those very same minds, wherein they were erst-whiles enshrined with all devotion.
1624. Gataker, Transubst., 209. Which our Aduersarie also earstwhiles confessed.
1662. Glanvill, Lux Orient., 180. Those thick and clammy vapours which erstwhile ascended in such vast measures … must … descend again.
1881. Duffield, Don Quix., II. 407. During that year the clouds erstwhile had withheld their dew from the earth.
