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).
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