▪ I. hither, adv. and a.
(ˈhɪðə(r))
Forms: α. 1–5 hider, 3–6 hyder, 4 huder, 4–5 hidir, -ur, 5 hydir, -ur, -yr, 4–6 hidder, -ir, hydder, -ir, -yr; 4 hiþer, 5–6 hyther, 5– hither. β. 3 hidere, 4–5 hidre. γ. 4–5 heder, -ir(e, -ur, -yr, 6 hedder; 4 heþer, 4–5 hethir, 5–7 hether.
[OE. hider corresp. to ON. heðra, Goth. hidrê; f. demonstr. stem hi- (see he, here) + suffix appearing also in L. ci-trā on this side. Not known in WGer. exc. in OE.; but it has been suggested that OS. herod, OHG. herot, in same sense, are of similar origin. For the later change of d to th (ð), cf. note to father.]
A. adv.
1. With verbs of motion (or cognate nouns): To or towards this place. (Now only literary; in ordinary speech supplanted by here q.v., sense 7).
| c 725 Corpus Gl. 1158 Istuc, hider. c 825 Vesp. Ps. lxxii. 10. c 1000 ælfric Gram. xxxviii. (Z.) 223 Huc, hider. a 1123 O.E. Chron. an. 1101 Þe mid unfriðe hider to lande fundode. c 1205 Lay. 26733 We beoð hidere [c 1275 hider] icumen. a 1300 Cursor M. 10315 Nu am i hidir to þe send. 1388 Wyclif John xx. 27 Putte hider thin hond. c 1440 Generydes 168 Of my comyng heder. c 1450 Merlin 39 Bringe hethir the clerkes. 1550 Crowley Last Trump. 93 Come hither unto me. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. v. 5 Vnder the greene wood tree, who loues to lye with mee..Come hither, come hither, come hither. 1671 Milton Samson 1445 My inducement hither. 1766 Gray in Corr. w. Nicholls (1843) 63 Till my return hither yesterday. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 557 Hither..came news that the frigates had forced a passage. |
† b. (Of the direction of feeling.) Obs. rare.
| 1579 J. Stubbes Gaping Gulf E vj, That false Scot prelate Rosse, mortall enemy hether. |
† c. With redundant to or unto (north. till). (Cf. from hence.) Obs.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 7746 Swa many myle, Fra heven tylle hyder. 1382 Wyclif Job xxxviii. 11 Vnto hider thou shalt come, and no ferthere gon. |
2. To or on this side (of). rare.
| 1864 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xii. ix. IV. 209 At Steinberg..some twenty miles hither of Olmütz. |
† 3. Up to this point (of time, or of discourse, etc.); till now, thus far, hitherto. Also with redundant to (north. till). Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 581 Now haf i sceud yow til hider [Gött. hiþer] how [etc.]. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) v. 44 From that tyme hidre, the Sowdan clepethe him self Calyffee. 1466 Edw. IV. in Paston Lett. No. 552 II. 282 Sithen the Conquest hither. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 267 Hither of causes and sickness in general. Now it is also meet, that we speak..of signes whereby sickness is known. |
† 4. To this end, aim, or result; to this subject, class, or category; hereto. Obs.
| 1538 Starkey England i. i. 7 Hyther tendyth al prudence and pollycy. 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. Pref. (1573) 12 S. John hath hyther borrowed all his thinges out of the Scriptures..to.. confirme his writinges by the scripture. 1608 D. T. Ess. Pol. & Mor. 118 Hither may that speech..be well referred. a 1694 Tillotson Serm. (1743) I. v. 137 Hither belong all those texts which [etc.]. |
5. Phr. hither and thither. To this place and that, in this direction and in that (alternately); to and fro; in various directions. [In OE.; also with gen. endings hidres ðidres.] So hither and yon (yond). dial. and U.S.
| c 725 Corpus Gl. 2148 Ultroque citroque, hider ond ðider [MS. hider]. c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xl. §5 Ac ic ondræde þæt ic þe læde hidres þidres on þa paþas of þinum weᵹe. c 897 ― Gregory's Past. ix. 59 Ðæt scip..Drifen hider and ðider. c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. v. xiii. [xii.] (1890) 428 Ða ahof ic mine eaᵹan upp & locade hider & ᵹeond. a 1300 Cursor M. 16001 Þai iesus ledd..Bath hider & þider. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) v. i. (1859) 69, I sawe hym..fle hyder and thyder. 1621 G. Sandys Ovid's Met. xv. (1626) 308 Hether and thether still the Spirit strayes. 1787 Grose Prov. Gloss., Hither and yon, here and there, backwards and forwards. North. 1821 Galt Sir A. Wylie II. 20 (Jam.) Noo that they're hither and yont frae ane anither. 1871 R. H. Hutton Ess. (1877) I. 34 A Power..that moves us hither and thither through the ordinary Courses of our lives. |
B. adj. Situated on this side, or in this direction; the nearer (of two things, or ends or parts of something). Also fig. of time. [Cf. L. citer, citerior.]
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 299 Þere beeþ tweye Spaynes; þe hyder bygynneþ from þe pleynes and valeys of Pireneies..Þe ȝonder Spayne conteyneþ þe west partye. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 942/2 On this hither side of the riuer. 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 722 That Globe, whose hither side With light..reflected, shines. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 53 Lay..the Mold flat upon the hither end of the using File. 1850 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) II. xix. 382 In the wildest districts of the Hither Province. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home 177 On the hither bank a fisherman was washing his boat. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue v. 219 A widening divergence separates them at their hither end. |
b. sup. hitherest: nearest. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1462 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 562 My master brake his hederest ponde at Sprottes. And..lete nat owte alle the water. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Hitherest, the nearest. |
▪ II. ˈhither, v.
[Elliptical use of adv. = come hither.]
intr. To move or come hither; chiefly in phr. to hither and thither = to go to and fro; to move about in various directions.
| 1856 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 275 Mr. C. always hithers and thithers in a weary interminable way. 1864 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xvi. xi. IV. 436 Confused hithering and thithering. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v., They come hithering frae all parts. 18.. New Mirror (N.Y.) III. 96 (Cent.) An old black trunk—a companion to our hithering and thithering for seven long years. |