now-forgotten

The compound "now-forgotten" is a distinctly English formation, built from native Germanic elements. The core concept hinges on the archaic or dialectal use of "gotten" to mean 'acquired' or 'produced', combined with the intensive prefix "for-" implying a sense of loss or negation. Literally, it suggests something that was once 'gotten' or come into being is now, in the present, completely ('for-') lost from memory. This evocative, somewhat poetic structure fell out of common use, making the word itself a descriptor for things relegated to obscurity, its construction now largely fossilized in literary and historical contexts.

Structure: now + for + gotten - now: From Old English 'nū', meaning 'at the present time'. It functions as an adverb modifying the state of being. - for: From Old English prefix 'for-', often used as an intensive or with a sense of 'away, off, completely'. It functions as a prefix intensifying the action of the verb. - gotten: The past participle of the verb 'get', from Old Norse 'geta'. In this compound, it carries the sense of 'obtained' or, archaically, 'begotten', which evolved into the state of being.