What does the phrase "or euer" mean in Middle English from the 1500s?

Solution 1:

Or is not the "or" of Modern English, but Or = ere = before.

OED:

ere, adv.1, prep., conj., and adj.

B. prep. 1. a. Before (in time).

Forms: β. Middle English–1600s (1800s archaic) or, Middle English ore.

d. with the addition of ever.

β.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear vii. 445 This heart shall breake, in a 100. thousand flowes Or ere ile weepe.

1611 Bible (King James) Dan. vi. 24 The Lyons..brake all their bones in pieces or euer they came at the bottome of the den.

1883 A. C. Swinburne Cent. Roundels 23 These, or ever man was, were.

And euer is not the common form of "ever" of Modern English - i.e. = for all time - but the rarer one:

Ever:

Forms: Middle English–1600s euer,

ever: 6. Used for emphasis: on any supposition, by any chance, at all. Also appended to relative pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs, giving to them a generalized or indefinite force. These combinations are now always written as single words: see whoever pron., whosoever pron., however adv., whatever pron., etc.

d. Added for emphasis to the temporal conjunctions as soon as, so soon as, before, ere

c1400 (▸?c1380) Pearl l. 328 Schal I efte forgo hit er euer I fyne?

1844 E. B. Barrett Drama of Exile in Poems I. 48 Or ever she [sc. the Earth] knew sin!

1872 G. W. Dasent Three to One II. 256 I know what is to happen, before ever I get up-stairs.

2001 N. Gaiman Amer. Gods (2002) xx. 605 I was a god before ever I was a kobold.

Thus: Iesus sayde vnto the: Verely verely I saye vnto you: Or euer Abraham was, I am. = Jesus said to them: Truly, truly I tell you: before ever Abraham existed, I existed. (Joh:8:58)