Obs. [f. FORMER a. + -NESS.] The quality of being former; anteriority.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, vii. 98 Where order is, there is a formernesse and an afternesse, and all chaunge is a kind of mouing, insomuch that the alterations which are made successiuely one after another, must of necessitie haue had a beginning at some poynt or other.
1674. N. Fairfax, A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World, 13–4. To choose out such words to set forth Gods ever-beingness by, as may be sure to shut out formerness and afterness, which Gods everlastingness has not, though we cannot on the other hand make them take in what we believe it has.
