Word of the Day: อดีต /a'dìit/

Word of the Day for Friday, March 20, 2009:

อดีต /a'dìit/ n. the past; adj. past, former, ex-

Both the noun and adjective forms of this word are common. As a noun, you might see phrases like:

วันนี้ในอดีต "On this day in history..." (a feature on the Wikipedia home page), literally "today in the past"

ย้อนอดีต "go back in time" (often used figuratively to refer to times or events past)

And as an adjective:

อดีตประธานาธิบดี "ex-president, former president"

อดีตคู่สมรส "ex-spouse, ex-husband/wife"

Less common (but good to know) is the elegant form อดีตกาล /a'dìit.ta 'kaan/, literally "past time".

[For help reading or pronouncing, you can paste full phrases into thai2english.com or thai-language.com.]