Wiktionary

thither

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English thider, from Old English þider, an alteration (probably by analogy with hider (“hither”)) of earlier þæder (“to there”), from Proto-Germanic *þadrê.

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Adverb edit

thither (not comparable)

  1. (chiefly literary or law, archaic) To that place.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 19:20:
      Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither […]
    • 1661, Robert Boyle, “Physiological Considerations Touching the Experiments Wont to be Employed to Evince either the IV Peripatetick Elements, or the III Chymical Principls of Mixt Bodies. Part of the First Dialogue.”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, […], London: […] J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, […], →OCLC, page 9:
      […] Eleutherius, who thinking himself concern'd, because he brought me thither […]
    • 1725 (indicated as 1726), [Daniel Defoe], “Letter XXIII. Of the Inland Trade of England, Its Magnitude, and the Great Advantage It is to the Nation in General.”, in The Complete English Tradesman, in Familiar Letters; Directing Him in All the Several Parts and Progressions of Trade. […], volume I, London: […] Charles Rivington […], →OCLC, page 390:
      [A]ll thoſe goods, and a great deal of money in ſpecie, is return'd hither for and in ballance of our ovvn manufactures and merchandizes exported thither; […]
    • 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], translated by H. L. Brækstad, Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 280:
      But the road left the river again; there were certainly twistings and turnings, as the old woman had said, for at one moment it wound hither and the next thither, and at some places it was almost imperceptible.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
      And there rises a shining palace whose crystal glittering roof is seen by mariners who traverse the extensive sea in barks built expressly for that purpose, and thither come all herds and fatlings and firstfruits of that land for O'Connell Fitzsimon takes toll of them, a chieftain descended from chieftains.
  2. (archaic) To that point, end, or result.
    The argument tended thither.

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Adjective edit

thither (comparative —, superlative thithermost)

  1. (archaic) The farther, the other and more distant.
    the thither side of life, that is to say, afterlife

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See also edit

here there where
to hither thither whither
from hence thence whence
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