Etymology Dictionary

AGAIN,  a second time; AGAINST, in opposition to  (E.)   M.E. ayein, ayen, aye, ogain, onyain, generally written with ȝ for y, and very common both as an adverb and preposition.   Also in the forms ayaines, ogaines, ayens, onyænes, generally written with ȝ for y.   β. At a later period, an excrescent t (common after s) was added, just as in whilst from the older form whiles, or in the provincial Eng. wunst for once; and in betwix-t, amongs-t.   Ayenst occurs in Maundeville's Travels, p. 220; and ayeynest in Chaucer's Boethius, p. 12; I doubt if it is much older than A.D. 1350.   γ. The final -es in ayaines is the adverbial suffix -es, originally marking a gen. singular.   The form ayeines occurs in Old Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, p. 7; onyænes is in the Ormulum, l. 249; I doubt if this suffix is much older than A.D. 1200, though the word tó-gegnes or togenes is common at an early period.—A.S. ongegn, ongeán, against, again, prep. and adv. Grein, ii. 344. + O. Sax. angegin, prep. and adv. again, against. + Icel. í gegn, against. + Dan. igien, adv. again. + Swed. igen, adv. again. + O.H.G. ingagene, ingegene, engegene (mod. G. entgegen, where the t appears to be merely excrescent).   ¶ Hence the prefix is plainly the A.S. and mod. E. on, generally used in the sense of in.   The simple form geán occurs in Cædmon, ed. Thorpe, p. 62, l. 2 (ed. Grein, 1009); 'he him geán þingode' = he addressed him again, or in return; cf. Icel. gegn, G. gegen, contrary to.   A.S. ongeán seems thus to mean 'in opposition to.'   The remoter history of the word is obscure; it appears to be related either to the sb. gang, a going, a way, or to the verb gán or gangan, to gang, to go, the root being either way the same.   In Beowulf, ed. Thorpe, 3772, we have the phrase on gange, in the way; from which phrase the alteration to ongán is not violent.   See Go.   ¶ The prefix again- is very common in Mid. Eng., and enters into numerous compounds in which it frequently answers to Lat. re- or red-; ex. ayenbite = again-biting, i.e. re-morse; ayenbuye = buy back, i.e. red-eem.   Nearly all these compounds are obsolete.   The chief remaining one is M.E. ayein-seien, now shortened to gain-say.