for: [OE] For comes from a prehistoric Germanic *fora, which denoted ‘before’ – both ‘before’ in time and ‘in front’ in place. For itself meant ‘before’ in the Old English period, and the same notion is preserved in related forms such as first, fore, foremost, former, from, and of course before. Germanic *fora itself goes back to Indo- European *pr, source also of Latin prae ‘before’, pro ‘for’, and primus ‘first’ (whence English premier, primary, etc), Greek pará ‘by, past’, pró ‘before’, and protos ‘first’ (whence English protocol, prototype, etc). and English forth and further. => before, first, fore, former, forth, from, further, premier, primary
for (prep.)
Old English for "before, in the sight of, in the presence of; as far as; during, before; on account of, for the sake of; in place of, instead of," from Proto-Germanic *fur "before; in" (cognates: Old Saxon furi "before," Old Frisian for, Middle Dutch vore, Dutch voor "for, before;" German für "for;" Danish for "for," før "before;" Gothic faur "for," faura "before"), from PIE *pr- (see fore (adv.)).
From late Old English as "in favor of." For and fore differentiated gradually in Middle English. For alone as a conjunction, "because, since, for the reason that; in order that" is from late Old English, probably a shortening of common Old English phrases such as for þon þy "therefore," literally "for the (reason) that."
实用例句
1. For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?
我们活着是为了什么？不就是给邻居当笑柄，再反过来笑他们。
来自《傲慢与偏见》
2. Sometimes things have to fall apart to make way for better things.
有时候要到达谷底，才会慢慢变好。
来自金山词霸 每日一句
3. Do not wait for good things to happen to you. You need to walk towards happiness.
不要等待好事降临，你要向幸福进发。
来自金山词霸 每日一句
4. Instead of complaining about what's wrong, be grateful for what's right.
别抱怨不好的事，要对好的事心存感恩。
来自金山词霸 每日一句
5. Good luck is when an opportunity comes along and you're prepared for it.
