(ə-gĭnˈ) Chiefly Upper Southern U.S.
preposition- Against.
- Opposed to: I'm agin him.
- Next to; beside; near.
- By or before (a specified time).
conjunction By the time that.
Regional Note: The spelling of
agin reflects both the raised vowel before a nasal consonant, typical of Southern dialects, and a reduced final consonant cluster, typical of several regional varieties.
Agin has a wide spectrum of senses in the regional speech of those who pronounce it this way. Indeed, these regional senses are tied to the pronunciation, for standard English
against does not quite capture the full implication of the assertion
“I'm agin him”—that is, “opposed to him and all that he stands for.” Another regional sense recalls the original literal Old English sense of “facing; next to” (see the first four senses of
against in the
Oxford English Dictionary), where standard English would have
by: Their house is agin the mountain. Agin may be used figuratively with regard to time, meaning “by or before (a specified time),” in South Midland dialects:
“I'll be there agin daylight” (North Carolina informant in DARE).
