whither

Contents

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old English hwæder, from Proto-Germanic *hwi-.

PronunciationEdit

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪðɚ/, /ˈʍɪðɚ/; enPR: wĭthʹər, hwĭthʹər
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪðə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪðə(ɹ)
• Homophone: wither (some accents)

AdverbEdit

whither (not comparable)

1. (archaic, formal or literary) To where.
   • 1611, King James Bible^Wikisource, John 8:14:

     Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Sea-chest”, in Treasure Island^Wikisource:

     [W]hat greatly encouraged me, it was in an opposite direction from that whence the blind man had made his appearance and whither he had presumably returned.

   • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Penguin Red Classics, paperback edition, page 24

     And with the same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body had been carried.

   • 1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia, Mirado Modern Classics, paperback edition, page 8

     The wagon jolted on, carrying me I knew not whither.

Usage notesEdit

• This word is unusual in modern usage; where is much more common. It is more often encountered in older works, or when used poetically.
• Do not confuse with whether or wither.
• Compare to the inanimate pronoun "whereto" which follows the pattern of "preposition + what" or "preposition + which".

Derived termsEdit

Terms derived from whither

• anywhither
• elsewhither
• everywhither
• nowhither

• somewhither
• whitherever
• whithersoever
• whitherward

AntonymsEdit

• whence

Related termsEdit

• hither
• thither

TranslationsEdit

to which place

• Ancient Greek: ποῖ (poî)
• Arabic: إِلَى أَيْن‏‎ (ʾilā ʾayn)
• Belarusian: куды (kudý)
• Bulgarian: накъде (nakǎdé), накъдето (nakǎdéto)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哪兒 (zh), 哪儿 (zh) (nǎr), 哪裡 (zh), 哪里 (zh) (nǎlǐ)

• Czech: kam (cs)
• Danish: hvorhen
• Dutch: waarheen (nl), werwaarts
• Esperanto: kien (eo)
• Faroese: hvagar
• Finnish: minne (fi), jonne (fi)
• French: où (fr)
• German: wohin (de)
• Hebrew: לְאָן‏‎ (leán)
• Hungarian: hová (hu), hova (hu), merrefelé (hu)
• Icelandic: hvert (is)
• Japanese: どこへ (ja) (doko-e)
• Korean: 어디 (ko) (eodi)
• Kriol: wijei
• Latin: quō (la)

• Latvian: kur, kurp
• Macedonian: каде (káde)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hvor (no), hvor hen

  Nynorsk: kor, kvar

• Polish: dokąd (pl)
• Portuguese: aonde (pt)
• Romanian: încotro (ro)
• Russian: куда́ (ru) (kudá)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: куда, камо

  Roman: kuda (sh), kamo (sh)

• Slovak: kam
• Slovene: kam (sl)
• Spanish: adónde (es), onde (es)
• Swedish: vart (sv), varthän (sv)
• Turkish: nereye (tr)
• Ukrainian: куди (kudý)
• Vietnamese: đâu (vi)
• Volapük: kipladio (vo)
• Yiddish: וווּהין‏‎ (vuhin)

VerbEdit

whither (third-person singular simple present whithers, present participle whithering, simple past and past participle whithered)

1. (intransitive, obsolete, dialectal) To wuther.