'before-death' originates from Old English elements 'beforan' and 'dēaþ', where 'beforan' meant 'in front of, before' and 'dēaþ' meant 'death'.

'before' comes from Old English 'beforan' and 'death' from Old English 'dēaþ'. In Middle English the words were used separately (e.g. 'before death'), and in Modern English they are sometimes combined as the compound adjective/noun 'before-death' (analogous in meaning to Latin-based 'ante-mortem').

Originally, 'before' had a strong spatial sense ('in front of') which extended into temporal use ('prior to'); combined with 'death' this evolved from the simple phrase 'before death' to the compound use meaning 'prior to death' or 'occurring before death'.