Why does 前 mean "past" in terms of time, but "forward" in terms of direction?


Why does 前 mean "past" in terms of time, but "forward" in terms of direction?

So far I was able to find that 前 is constructed from Chinese: 舟 and 止, which
can be interpreted as "leaving a footprint", hence the "past" meaning, but it
seems kind of far-fetched.




There are many issues with the question, because it doesn't differentiate
between _words_ and _characters_. Fully addressing the question requires a
discussion of the following:

  1. The glyph origin of「前」
  2. Spatiotemporal metaphors
  3. The Chinese word (Old Chinese: /*[dz]ˤen/) meaning _front/forward, past_ and translating this Chinese word into the Japanese word「まえ」

* * *

Firstly, there is no demonstrable link between the character「前」and the meaning
_forward_. The oracle bone version of「前」looked like

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/FMrn4.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/FMrn4.png)

That is, a compound of「止」( _foot_ ) and「凡」( _a tray_ , now written「盤」). The
original meaning was _to wash one's feet (e.g. in a basin)_ , and sometimes to
emphasise the meaning, drops of water「氵」were added around the foot, and「凡」was
replaced with「用」( _a tub/bucket_ , now written「桶」).

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DSm27.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DSm27.png)

The original meaning was extended to mean _wash_ in general, now
written「湔」.「凡」is often confused with「舟」(seen in many characters such as「盤」,
where the tray-shape is morphed into「舟」), because「凡」and「舟」looked very similar
in many bronze inscriptions:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wnY9D.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wnY9D.png)

_(Bronze script forms; Left: 舟, Right: 凡)_

This leads to the form「歬」, and by this time「凡」and「用」were long gone from the
character and「歬」was used for the meaning _forward_.

The character didn't stop changing, however, and eventually「刀」was added to
represent the meaning _cut_ , later written「剪」(to emphasise the meaning _cut_
differentiated from _forward_ via the addition of yet another「刀」). An overview
of the change over the years looked something like this:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QgG1C.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QgG1C.png)

Hopefully this demonstrates the importance in separating the concepts of
_words_ and _characters_ ; the one series of characters「前」has been used to
represent three completely different words (meaning _wash, forward, cut_ )
which merely sounded similar.

* * *

Now that we've determined that the character has nothing to do with the
meaning, the second point of interest is the association of forward and past,
and backward and future. Neurobiology/psycholinguistics terms the description
of temporal directionality using spatial language as _spatiotemporal
metaphors_ , noting that words that describe spatial locations are borrowed in
most languages around the world to also describe temporal sequencing. Studies
relating to the English language typically categorises these as _time-based_
and _ego-based_ metaphors:

  * Time-based metaphor, viewing a sequence of events from past to present. Future is _behind_ , past is _in front_. 
    * English: after, before
    * Chinese:「後」,「前」
  * Ego-based metaphor, viewing a sequence of events as approaching you or leaving you. Future is _in front_ , past is _behind_. 
    * English: forwards (what's coming ahead), backwards (what's left behind)
    * Chinese:「未來」,「過去」

It is clear that English also has a metaphor equating _front_ as _past_ ,
which is directly translatable to「前」; however it is the time-based _before_
rather than the ego-based _forward_.

Japanese「まえ」(etymology/historical spelling:「[目方]{まへ}」, _the direction which
the eyes are looking in_ ), as a spatial term is an easy enough correspondence
to Chinese /*[dz]ˤen/ ( _front_ ), but did it carry a connotation of _before,
past_ prior to the importation of _kanji_? The presence of a few other
Japanese vocabulary items specifying the past suggests a preference towards
ego-based metaphors:

  * 「[古]{いにしえ}」 - from「[往]{い}にし[方]{へ}」, _in the direction of that which has left you_ ;
  * 「[昔]{むかし}」 - from「[向]{む}く」+「し」, _in the direction of that opposite to the present (where you are located)_.

* * *

To summarise:

  * 「前」has nothing to do with _forward/past_ in terms of glyph origins;
  * Chinese uses「前」as a time-based metaphor indicating _the past_ ;
  * It is unknown whether「まえ」had the association to the meaning _past_ before「前」was imported. Such a meaning would at least not be obvious from the etymology「[目方]{まへ}」, and we would expect an abundance of fossilised words containing a derivative or cognate of「[目方]{まへ}」referring to _the past_ if「まえ」was associated with _the past_ before the importation of「前」.




Probably for the same reason that someone who is "ahead" of someone else is
both _in front_ of them physically and also arrives _earlier_. For that
matter, the English word "before" also shares the same meanings of "earlier"
and "in front" (though the latter meaning is rarer in current usage).

Equating temporal directions with physical ones is a tricky matter that's more
complicated than it might intuitively seem. 前 is actually the simpler Japanese
example here, because it is at least very consistent in which direction it
refers to in each context. 先 is so nebulous that it can actually refer to the
past or future.

