Attrib. use of the advb. phrase long ago (see AGO): That has long gone by; that belongs to the distant past. Also quasi-sb. and sb., the distant past or its events; rarely in pl.
a. 1834. Coleridge, in Blackw. Mag., CXXXI. (1882), 116/2. My long, long-ago theory of volition as a mode of double-touch.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., I. Castle Vautsberg. The shapes of joy and woe, The airy crowds of long-ago.
1861. A. A. Procter, Leg. & Lyr., 205. I have buried grief and sorrow In the depths of Long-ago.
1872. Lever, Ld. Kilgobbin, ix. (1875), 56. Desultory thoughts … with ‘long-agoes.’
1889. Chicago Advance, 24 Jan. A book, the long-ago gift of his dead mother.
1896. A. J. C. Hare, Story of my Life, I. Pref. p vi. Time is always apt to paint the long-ago in fresh colours.
1896. Spectator, 7 March, 338. In spite of his wide severance from the ways of that long-ago time.
1900. Pall Mall Mag., May, 77. The long-ago silk gown of a long-ago lady.
