Beyond

adv. and prep. Forms: 1 be-, biʓeondan, beiundan, 2 beʓeonden, 3 biȝeonde(n, biȝonndenn, 3–5 bi-, byyond(e, -ȝonde, biȝende, 4 beȝonde(n, be-, biȝunde, 4–6 beyend(e, 5–6 beyonde, 6 by yonde, byȝend, 5– beyond. [OE. beʓeondan, not found in other Teut. langs.: f. bi-, BE- indicating position + ʓeondan from the farther side:—OTeut. *jandana, f. *jand (in OE. ʓeond across, through, beyond. Cf. Goth. jaind yonder) + -ana advb. suffix: cf. BEHIND. The advb. *jand, (jaind,) ʓeond, belongs to the demonstr. pron. *jano-z, Goth. jains, OHG. jenêr (stem jani-), OE. ʓeon, YON. Other derivatives in Gothic were jainar there; jaindre thither, jainþro thence. The literal meaning of beʓeondan was thus ‘on yon side, on the farther side.’ Used either without (adv.) or with (prep.) an object.]

  A.  adv.

  1.  On the farther side, farther away, at a greater distance.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gram., 232. Ulterius, feor beʓeondan.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 105. Ichaue a kniht hette Concience com late from bi-ȝonde [B. biȝunde].

c. 1400.  Maundev., xxxi. 314. With outen ony more rehercyng of … marvaylles that ben beȝonde.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xvii. 59. And be-yonde is Bedleem.

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 38. Lo, where beyond he lyeth languishing.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., II. i. 242. So high a hope, that euen Ambition cannot pierce a winke beyond.

1842.  Tennyson, Pal. Art, 82. Beyond, a line of heights.

  2.  In addition, besides, over and above. rare.

1886.  Law Times, LXXX. 193/1. This amount and £5, his own damages beyond, he sought to recover in this action.

  B.  prep.

  1.  Of position in space: On the farther side of. a. of a boundary, barrier, or intervening space. Beyond seas: out of the country; abroad.

a. 1000.  Ælfric, Deut. i. 5. Beiundane Iordane on Moab lande.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., John i. 28. On beþanía beʓeondan iordanen.

c. 1205.  Lay., 28274. Al biȝeonde þerere Humbre.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 11396. Bi-yond þam ar wonnand nan.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., 1. Myn husbond, quod she, is biȝende þe see.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., III. vi. 180. Beyond the River wee’le encampe our selues.

1644.  Milton, Educ., ad init. Both here and beyond the seas.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 258. The new world beyond the hills.

1792.  S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., II. 51. Beyond the western wave.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 173. From 1646 to 1660 he had lived beyond sea.

  b.  of an object regarded simply as a point in space: Past, further on than, at a more distant point or position than.

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Sam. xx. 22. The arowis ben beȝonde [1388 biȝende] thee.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., II. i. 247. She that is Queene of Tunis, she that dwels Ten leagues beyond mans life.

1821.  Byron, Cain, II. i. 14. Thou shalt behold The worlds beyond thy little world.

1846.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. II. § 4. iii. 296. Out of which rise the soft rounded slopes of mightier mountains, surge beyond surge.

1873.  Kingsley, Prose Idylls, 96. While high overhead hung, motionless, hawk beyond hawk, buzzard beyond buzzard, kite beyond kite, as far as eye could see.

  2.  Of motion: To the farther side of, farther than, past, so as to leave behind. (Cf. 10.)

a. 1075.  O. E. Chron., an. 1048. Godwine eorl and Sweʓen … ʓewendon heom beʓeondan sæ.

c. 1205.  Lay., 29149. Sum fleh bi-ȝeonden sæ.

c. 1305.  St. Dunstan, 103, in E. E. P. (1862), 37. Biȝunde see he drouȝ.

1529.  Rastell, Pastyme, Hist. Brit. (1811), 97. Drove them … by yonde Doram.

1556.  Chron. Grey Friars (1852), 35. Barnes … brake aways from them and went beyend see unto Luter.

1709.  Pope, Ess. Crit., 49. Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet.

1821.  Keats, Lamia, 429. His spirit pass’d beyond its golden bourn Into the noisy world.

1862.  Spalding, Hist. Eng. Lit. (1876), 372. Never able to pass a step beyond the self-drawn circle.

  b.  fig.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und. (1777), I. 275. It can proceed and pass beyond all those lengths.

1797.  Washington, Writ. (1858), 213. That France has stepped beyond the line of rectitude cannot be denied.

a. 1849.  J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 450. All-baffled reason cannot wander Beyond her chain.

1860.  Hawthorne, Marb. Faun., iv. (1883), 47. The story of this adventure … made its way beyond the usual gossip of the Forestieri.

  c.  = BESIDE 5 a. rare.

1834.  M. Scott, in Blackw. Mag., XXXVI. 814. The excess of her joy … had driven her beyond herself.

  † d.  To go beyond: to ‘get round,’ circumvent.

1602.  Life T. Cromwell, IV. v. 120. We must be wary, else he’ll go beyond us.

1611.  Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 6. That no man goe beyond and defraud his brother in any matter.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 409. The king has gone beyond me.

  3.  Towards the farther side of, farther than, past. (With look and equivalent verbs.) To look beyond (quot. 1597): to misconstrue, misunderstand.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 67. My gracious Lord, you looke beyond him quite.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 302, ¶ 7. Looking beyond this gloomy Vale of Affliction and Sorrow into the Joys of Heaven and Immortality.

1768.  Beattie, Minstr., I. (R.). Lofty souls who look beyond the tomb.

  4.  Of time: Past, later than.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 57. My griefe … Stretches it selfe beyond the howre of death. Ibid. (c. 1600), Sonn., cxxii. Which shall … remain Beyond all date, even to eternity.

1747.  Gray, Ode Eton Coll., 54. No care beyond to day.

1762.  Hume, Hist. Eng. (1826), V. xli. 228. Those who should remain beyond that time … should be guilty of treason.

1816.  J. Wilson, City of Plague, II. ii. 15. I have been kept from home, beyond my promised hour.

1853.  C. Brontë, Villette, xx. 236. We arrived safe at home about an hour and a half beyond our time.

  5.  fig. Outside the limit or sphere of, past; out of the grasp or reach of.

1535.  Coverdale, Num. xxii. 18. Yet could I not go beyonde y^e worde of the Lorde my God.

1595.  Shaks., John, IV. iii. 117. Beyond the infinite and boundlesse reach of mercie. Ibid. (1596), 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 200. Imagination of some great exploit Driues him beyond the bounds of Patience. Ibid. (1597), 2 Hen. IV., I. iii. 59. The Modell of a house Beyond his power to builde.

1605.  Heywood, If know not me, Wks. 1874, I. 210. Shoomaker, you goe a little beyond your last.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxiii. 201. A time past, beyond the memory of man.

1760.  Goldsm., Cit. W., lxx. (Globe), 202. It was beyond one man’s strength to remove it.

1856.  Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 53. A detail of the working of the trade laws would be beyond my present purpose.

1869.  J. Martineau, Ess., II. 76. Some offences … are beyond detection.

1885.  Sir L. Cave, in Law Times’ Rep., LII. 629/3. We cannot go beyond the written agreement.

  b.  To be beyond a person (colloq.): to pass his comprehension.

1812.  Miss Austen, Mansf. Park (1847), III. i. 280. This is beyond me, said he.

  6.  esp. with nouns expressing an action or a state of mind, as belief, doubt, endurance, expectation, question, etc.: Not within the range of, not according to, past, surpassing.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., II. ii. 25. These things are beyond all vse. Ibid. (1610), Temp., II. i. 59. Which is indeed almost beyond credit.

1692.  Bentley, Boyle Lect., iv. 135. ’Tis beyond even an Atheist’s Credulity.

1701.  W. Wotton, Hist. Rome, 285. His Spectacles were almost beyond belief.

1758.  Bp. Newton, Dissert., xvii. Wks. II. 400. Adversity … often procures friends beyond hope and expectation.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 197. France was now, beyond all doubt, the greatest power in Europe.

  7.  Exceeding in quantity or amount, more than. (As with above, the phrase beyond a hundred, etc., may be the subject of a sentence.)

a. 1500[?].  Battle Egyngec., 238, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 103. There dyed by yonde .vii. score vpon a day.

1605.  Lond. Prodigal, I. i. 220. Doth he spend beyond the allowance I left him?

1653.  Walton, Angler, i. 34. When he was beyond Seventy years of age he made this description.

1885.  Law Rep., XXIX. Chanc. Div. 528. To an amount far beyond their value.

  8.  Surpassing in quality or degree, exceeding, superior to; more than.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. v. 51. The Shepherd’s homely Curds … Is farre beyond a Princes Delicates.

1628.  Digby, Voy. Medit., 55. Were so much beyond our vessels in sayling.

1634.  Milton, Comus, 813. Delight Beyond the bliss of dreams.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones (1836), I. I. xi. 52. His shoulders were broad beyond all size.

1873.  Tristram, Moab, ii. 35. Our guide, looking on game as far beyond names in importance.

  b.  Beyond measure (advb. phr.): more than what is meet or moderate; exceedingly, excessively.

1526.  Tindale, Mark vii. 37. They … were beyonde measure astonyed [so 1611].

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 90. Shrow’d and froward, so beyond all measure.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 89. I am delighted beyond measure.

  9.  In addition to, besides, over and above; in negative and interrog. sentences almost = Except; cf. BESIDES B 2 and 3.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., III. i. 281. Ouer and biȝende the citees.

1593.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. xi. § 4. Somewhat beyond and above all this.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. i. 135. Bring me a constant woman to her Husband, One that ne’re dream’d a Ioy, beyond his pleasure.

1761.  Hume, Hist. Eng. (1826), II. cxi. App. 112. The Conqueror ordained that the barons should be obliged to pay nothing beyond their stated services.

1831.  Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. vi. No prospect of breakfast beyond elemental liquid.

1851.  Dixon, W. Penn, xvi. (1872), 134. Beyond his labours as a preacher, he composed … twenty-six books of controversy.

  10.  When beyond = ‘farther than,’ ‘more than,’ introduces an adverbial extension of the predicate, the clause in which it occurs is often contracted; They prospered beyond other men = ‘beyond the measure in which other men prospered’; I went a step beyond Whiston = ‘beyond the point to which he went.’

1578.  Gude & Godely Ball., 127. His bemis send he hes out far Beȝond vther sternis all [i.e., beyond the distance to which all other stars have sent theirs].

1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, I. § 29. 44. They go in inhumane cruelty beyond the Heathen.

1667.  Milton, P. L., X. 805. That were to extend His Sentence beyond dust and Natures Law.

1758.  Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornw., xix. § 7. 232. The plant grows luxuriant beyond what we have in Cornwall.

1766.  Goldsm., Vic. Wakef., ii. (1806), 6. I even went a step beyond Whiston in displaying my principles.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 154. The discarded warriors prospered beyond other men.

  C.  quasi-sb. That which lies on the other side or farther away, the remote or distant; that which lies beyond our present life or experience.

1581.  Savile, Tacitus’ Hist., IV. viii. 174. Beyond [ulteriora] he honored and admired, but professed to follow the present estate.

1835.  Lytton, Rienzi, X. viii. Each is the yearning for the Great Beyond, which attests our immortality.

1876.  Mozley, Univ. Serm., iii. 47. Love … wants a beyond, and no being that is without this beyond can duly answer to it as an object.

1885.  J. Martineau, Eth. Theory, I. 281. They are the All, with no beyond.

  b.  The back of beyond: a humorous phrase for ever so far off, some very out of the way place.

1816.  Scott, Antiq., I. 37 (Jam.). You … whirled them to the back of beyont to look at the auld Roman camp.

1853.  De Quincey, Sp. Mil. Nun, Wks. III. 12. Which port (according to a smart American adage) is to be looked for at the back of beyond.

1883.  Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 151. In the fastnesses of Nature, forests, mountains, and the back of man’s beyond.

  D.  Comb. † Beyond-sea a. (cf. B 1), ultramarine, outlandish, foreign; hence † beyond-sea-ship, humorously applied to a foreign prince (cf. lordship).

1498.  Will. of Petyt (Somerset Ho.). Ij paire of beyond see shetes.

1534.  Eng. Ch. Furniture, 209. A paynted cloth of beyond see werk.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, 580. The garden Mallow called the winter or beyond see roose. Ibid., 682. The red beyondsea Gooseberie.

1611.  Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, IV. ii. I never loved his beyond-sea-ship.

1639.  Fuller, Holy War, IV. viii. (1840), 192. Henceforward the beyond-sea world took notice of him.

1711.  J. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 10. Excessive Lust of Novelty … has stung many with an Itch of bringing in beyond-Sea words.