Ago
"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."
If you were at least eight years old in 1977 it is very likely you are familiar with this Star Wars quote. And if you are a native speaker of English you probably know each word of this quote as well as you know your own name. So, let’s put that knowledge to the test. Specifically, have you considered the meaning of the word “ago”? Essentially it’s a pointer to the past. Right?
But what about its linguistic, grammatical function: “a long time ago”? Is it serving as an adjective, an adverb, a verb, a preposition?
Frankly, I never really gave it any thought. Until now. Perhaps somewhere, deep in the recess of my writer’s mind I may have vaguely considered it an adverbial preposition, a preposition overloaded to act like an adverb, like “off” in “get off”, or “up” in “shut up” or “around” in “come around”. But, there’s no verb: “a long time ago”.
I do see a noun: “time”. Perhaps ago is more like an adjectival preposition, a preposition overloaded to serve as an adjective, such as “off” in “send off”, or “down” in “put down” or “together” in “get together”. Or maybe it’s just an adjective. But there is already an adjective in front of the noun: “long time”. Why would there be an adjective before and after the same noun? Is this a common pattern? Maybe. We could say “a long time passed”, or “a long time gone”. So, if ago is an adjective, then it must be a particular kind of adjective.
According to the Merriam-Webster [MW] dictionary, ago is an “adjective (or adverb)”. Or adverb? Strange. And I was ready to narrow it down to an adjective. It does seem to behave like an adjective; it is qualifying a noun: “A long time ago…”, “Three years ago…” However, it could be an adverb since these phrases seem to behave like adverbs that answer the question “When?”. In which case they are then qualifying the unspoken “was”: “[It was] a long time ago…”, “[It was] three years ago…”.
MW defines ago as “earlier than the present time” and supplies the archaic synonym “agone”. That looks like “gone”. So, is ago related to the verb “to go”? Etymologically, MW says ago is derived from the Old English āgān which is composed of the perfective prefix, ā- and the past participle, gān. A past participle is a word, a verb, that conveys an action in the past and that can double as an adjective. You can read gān as “gone” or “gone away”:
A long time ago -> A long time gone.
Here perfective means that the action is complete. The prefix, ā-, was once a productive linguistic element in Old English:
Hē is ārīsen of his slǣpe. (He has arisen from his sleep.)
Hē is āfaren tō Rōme. (He has gone to Rome.)
Hē hæfð his freondum ālēon. (He has lent to his friends.)
Today, in Modern English, ā- is a mere vestige found in very few verbs: abear, abide, arisen, but with the perfective aspect almost completely forgotten. The perfective aspect in the past is now only expressed through a combination of an auxiliary verb and the past participle, but has also evolved to allow for greater subtlety:
The fireworks have ended, so it’s too late to invite her. (present perfect)
The fireworks had ended, so it was too late to invite her. (past perfect)
The fireworks will have ended, so it will be too late to invite her. (future perfect)
Ironically, the only word where the perfective aspect is still functional but no longer serves as a verb is ago.