forelife

English edit

From Middle English forelyf, foorlyf, equivalent to fore- +‎ life.

forelife (plural forelives)

A former or previous life
- 1965, Masamochi Ishikawa, The magical carpenter of Japan:
  [...] Murasaki, who stood before me and with an expression of perfect joy said to me, 'Buddha and Heaven have taken pity on me; for the life on earth, life in Senland is vouchsafed me, a home in Horai is accorded me; in the forelife of the Princess, in the forelife of my lord, Yamabito, was the bond created that presaged their eternal wedlock, when they shall shake them [...]
- 2000, R. Michael Perry, Forever for All:
  It would be possible in this way to append an entire forelife to ones memory or more than one forelife.
- 2015, William Dean Howells, William Dean Howells - Premium Collection:
  "But previous to this, my motive existed somewhere in that nebulous fore-life where both men and books have their impalpable beginning; for even you cannot have forgotten that when a certain passionately enterprising young editor asked you for a novel to be printed in his journal, you so far imagined me as to say that I would be about a girl.
(rare) Early or primitive life; protozoa
- 1910, Allen Upward, The New Word:
  Because all they hoped to create was the lowest kind of life; in their own words, the protozoon, or forelife; whereas Babbage created the highest kind of life; as it should seem, the afterlife, [...]