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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Since


SINCE, prep or adverb

1. After; from the time that. The proper signification of since is after, and its appropriate sense includes the whole period between an event and the present time. I have not seen my brother since January. The Lord hath blessed thee, since my coming. Genesis 30:30. Holy prophets, who have been since the world began. Luke Latin John 9:32. since then denotes, during the whole time after an event; or at any particular time during that period.

2. Ago; past; before this. 'About two years since an event happened, ' that is, two years having passed.

3. Because that; this being the fact that. since truth and constancy are vain, since neither love nor sese of pain nor force of reason can persuade, then let example be obey'd. since when it precedes a noun, is called a preposition, but when it precedes sentence it is called an adverb. The truth is, the character of the word is the same in both cases. It is probably an obsolete participle, and according to the usual classification of words, may be properly ranked with the prepositions. In strictness, the last clause of the passage above cited is the case absolute. 'The Lord hath blessed the, since my coming, ' that is, my arrival being past. So, since the world began, is strictly past the world began, the beginning of the world being past. In the first case, since considered as a preposition, has coming, a noun, for its object, and in the latter case, the clause of a sentence. So we say, against your arrival, or against you come.