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Warn vs Forwarn - What's the difference?

warn | forwarn |

In transitive terms the difference between warn and forwarn

is that warn is to notify (someone) of something untoward while forwarn is to prohibit; forbid; deny (right, access to, etc.).

warn

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) warnian, from (etyl) . Cognate with German warnen, Dutch waarnen.

Verb

(en verb)
  • To make (someone) aware of impending danger etc.
    • We waved a flag to warn the oncoming traffic.
  • To caution (someone) against unwise or unacceptable behaviour.
    • He was warned against crossing the railway tracks at night.
    Don't let me catch you running in the corridor again, I warn you.
  • To notify (someone) of something untoward.
    • I phoned to warn him of the rail strike.
  • To give warning.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, tr. Bible , Galatians II, 9-10:
    • then Iames Cephas and Iohn [...] agreed with vs that we shuld preache amonge the Hethen and they amonge the Iewes: warnynge only that we shulde remember the poore.
  • * 1973 , Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow , Penguin 1995, p. 177:
    • She is his deepest innocence in spaces of bough and hay before wishes were given a different name to warn that they might not come true [...].
  • * 1988 , Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses , Picador 2000, p. 496:
    • She warned that he was seriously thinking of withdrawing his offer to part the waters, ‘so that all you'll get at the Arabian Sea is a saltwater bath [...]’.
  • * 1991 , Clive James, ‘Making Programmes the World Wants’, The Dreaming Swimmer , Jonathan Cape 1992:
    • Every country has its resident experts who warn that imported television will destroy the national consciousness and replace it with Dallas'', ''The Waltons'', ''Star Trek'' and ''Twin Peaks .
    Usage notes
    * The intransitive sense is considered colloquial by some, and is explicitly proscribed by, for example, the Daily Telegraph style guide (which prefers give warning).
    Derived terms
    * warner * warning * warn off

    Etymology 2

    From a combination of (etyl) wiernan (from (etyl) ; compare Swedish varna).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To refuse, deny (someone something).
  • *:
  • *:And yf thou warne' her loue she shalle goo dye anone yf thou haue no pyte on her / that sygnefyeth the grete byrd / the whiche shalle make the to ' warne her

    • Anagrams

    * English reporting verbs

    forwarn

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To prohibit; forbid; deny (right, access to, etc.).
  • *1690 , Thomas Shadwell, The amorous bigotte :
    • Oh Cousin this wicked Duoena, this Grycta suspects the good Woman who brought the Letter, and has forwarn'd her the House.
  • *1708 , Samuel Sewall, Diary :
    • I meet the Workman by Mr. Pemberton's Gate, and forewarn him from making of it; [...]
  • *1840 , Charles Lamb, Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, The works of Charles Lamb :
    • [...] having been caught putting the inside of the master's desk to a use for which the architect had clearly not designed it, to justify himself, with great simplicity averred, that he did not know that the thing had been forewarned .