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"For always" meaning "forever"

English Language & Usage Asked on May 25, 2021

I have occasionally heard "for always" used to mean "forever". This is a random example from Google Books:

“Of course,” she said. “And I love you. For always.”

COCA returns hundreds of hits for "for always", mostly false positives though. And "love you for always" narrows it down to three hits. Google searches indicate this turn of phrase has been invoked in songs fairly commonly. But it apparently doesn’t occur in colloquial language very often, so I wonder if it is dialectal and where it originally came from.

One Answer

"For always" is relatively common in British English. It is informal and "always" is treated as a synonym of the noun "eternity". There are examples within the British National Corpus:

's right, my dear. He's in heaven now. Quite safe for always. Better than being sad and sick.'' He weren't sad,

Or shall I go down in history as the High Queen who lost Tara for always?

From morn till night. Birth till death. For always and ever. Unwelcome tears of frustration filled her eyes.

etc.

Answered by Greybeard on May 25, 2021

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