▪ I. hind, n.1
(haɪnd)
Forms: 1– hind; also 1–3 hynd, 3–7 hinde, 4–6 hynde, (5 hyynde). β. 6 hyne, hine.
[OE. hind str. fem. = ON. hind: cf. OLG. *hinda (MDu., Du. hinde), OHG. hinta (MHG., Ger. hinde), wk. fem., for which some suggest derivation from Goth. hinþan to catch; others would connect it with Gr. κεµάς young deer, pricket.]
1. The female of the deer, esp. of the red deer; spec. a female deer in and after its third year.
| a 900 Kent. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 59/15 Dammula, hind. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. Ibid. 119/13 Cerua, hind. c 1090 O.E. Chron. an. 1086 He læᵹde laᵹa..þæt swa hwa swa sloᵹe heort oððe hinde þæt hine man sceolde blendian. c 1205 Lay. 30568 No mihten heo deor iwine Nouþer heort no hinde. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 1365 He broughte a coppe wyþ milk & wyn Þat milked was of a whit hynde. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. cxiii. 94 He wold gone in to deuenshyre for to hunte for the hert & for the hynde. 1551 Bible 2 Sam. xxii. 34 God..maketh my fete as swyfte as an hyndes. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 39 Hart and hine, dae and Rae. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. i. 1 A milk-white Hind, immortal and unchang'd, Fed on the lawns. 1740 Somerville Hobbinol ii. 122 Swift as the Hind, That, by the Huntsman's Voice alarm'd, had fled. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxiii. 72 Be with hind that haunts the covert, or in hursts that house the boar. |
2. (In full hind-fish.) One of various fishes of the family Serranidæ and genus Epinephalus.
| 1734 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVIII. 317 The Hind..is esteemed a good Fish to eat. 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 408 The delicious little hind-fish (Epinephalus guttatus), spotted like a Japanese deer or a dappled fawn. |
3. Comb., as hind-hunting, hind-like, hind-spotted adjs.; † hind-fawn = hind-calf; hind's foot (tr. F. pied de biche), a kind of crossbow; † hind's tongue = hart's-tongue; † hind-wolf, ? a lynx.
| 1538 Turner Libellus B ij, Hemionitis..uidi et herbam..quam uulgus appellabat Hyndes tonge. 1601 Holland Pliny viii. xix, The Hind-wolfe, which some call Chaüs, and the Gaules were wont to name Rhaphius (resembling in some sort a wolfe with leopard's spots), were showed first in the solemnitie of the games and plaies exhibited by Cn. Pompeius the Great. 1622 Wither Prayer Habak. in Farr S.P. Jas. I (1848) 212 Who my feet so guides, that I, Hinde-like, pace my places high. 1647 W. Browne tr. Gomberville's Polexander ii. iv. 206 A Hynde spotted Fawnes skin. 1648–60 Hexham Dutch Dict., Een Ree-kalf, a Hinde-foane. 1874 Boutell Arms & Armour viii. 141 Of these cross-bows, or arblasts, there were three varieties, severally named—the hind's foot, the lever, and the rolling purchase. |
▪ II. hind, n.2
(haɪnd)
Forms: α. gen. pl. 1 h{iacu}na, (hiᵹna), 3 hine; nom. pl. 1–4 h{iacu}ne, 3–4 hyne; 3 hinen, 4 hynen; sing. 3–7 (8–9 dial.) hine, hyne. β. 5 heynde, 6 hynd, (hijnde), 6–7 hynde, (7 hiend), 6– hind.
[Early ME. hine sing., from earlier OE. (north midl.) and ME. h{iacu}ne pl.; app. developed from h{iacu}na, h{iacu}ᵹna genitive pl. of h{iacu}ᵹan, h{iacu}wan, in ONorthumb. h{iacu}ᵹu, h{iacu}ᵹo, ‘members of a family or household, domestics’ (see hewe): cf. h{iacu}ᵹna fæder (Lindisf. Gl.), h{iacu}na fæder, h{iacu}ne fæder, fæder h{iacu}ᵹna, -h{iacu}ne (Rushw. Gl.) = L. ‘paterfamilias’. For the later change of hine to hind, cf. astound, sound.]
† 1. As pl. Household servants, domestics, servants. Obs.
| c 975 Rushw. Gosp. Matt. x. 25 Nu hie fæder heora [Lindisf. G. fæder hiorades; Ags. G. hiredes fæder] belzebub nemdun hu micle mæ hiwæ vel hine [Lindisf. G. ᵹehuse] his? Ibid. 36 Fiondas monnes hiᵹu vel hine vel hiwen [Lindisf. G. husa; Ags. G. ᵹehusan] his. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 51 Hise wiðerfulle hine þo ben deules on helle. c 1300 Havelok 620 Louerd, we aren boþe þine, Þine cherles, þine hine. c 1300 Cursor M. 29462 (Cott. Galba) If þou haue hine..þai may þe serue to terme day. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 1210 He gef vus to be his homly hyne. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 5730 Þat he..to helle tok þo þe way And delyuerede þar is hyne. |
2. As sing. A servant; esp., in later use, a farm servant, an agricultural labourer.
† (α) hine, pl. hinen, hines.
| c 1205 Lay. 368 We habbeð seoue þusund..wið outen wifmen..children & hinen [c 1275 hine]. c 1230 Hali Meid. 7 Deð hire in to drecchunge to dihten hus & hinen. a 1240 Ureisun in Cott. Hom. 197 Ich am..ðin owune hine. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3776 Wid wifes, and childre, and hines kin. c 1340 Cursor M. 23320 (Trin.) Þe riȝtwis men shul se þo pynes Vpon oure lordes liþer hynes. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 140 He is an hyred hyne. a 1400 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 357 Þat euerych of hem habbe fowre hynen stalworthe. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xx. 386 Lord, shuld thou weshe feytt myne? Thou art my Lord, and I thy hyne. 1600 Holland Livy xxvi. xxxv. 610 Their servants and hines, such as should husband and till their grounds [servos agri cultores]. c 1650 Waller Answ. Suckling's Verses 33, I need not plough, since what the stooping hine Gets of my pregnant land must all be mine. |
(β) hind, pl. hinds.
| 1520 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 110 To every servaunte, hynde and made viij{supd}. c 1550 Cheke Mark i. 20 Zebedai yeer fayer in y⊇ boot with his hijndes, ἤ hired servants. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. i. 15 The labouring Hinde, when hee carryeth his dungue to the feelde. a 1639 T. Carew To Saxham 42 Both from the Master, and the Hinde. 1703 Rowe Ulyss. ii. i, The labours of the toiling hind. 1784 Cowper Task iii. 747 Laborious hinds That had survived the father, served the son. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 375 It was necessary that a body of sturdy hinds should be on each side of his coach, in order to prop it. |
b. spec. In Scotland and some parts of northern England: A married and skilled farm-workman, for whom a cottage is provided on the farm, and sometimes a cow; he has the charge of a pair of horses, and a responsible part in the working of the farm. An average-size farm has two hinds' houses besides the farm-house.
He bears to the farmer the same relation that a skilled journeyman holds to a master tradesman, and ranks above the farm-servants and labourers. In former times he furnished a female field-worker from his own family, or by himself hiring one, to perform stated work: see bondager.
| 1596 in H. Scott Fasti i. (1871) 277 [He had] two men and one woman servant and a hynd. 1744 Harris Three Treat. iii. i. (1765) 151 A comfortable Cottage and Raiment suitable to an industrious Hind. 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. I. 506 There are three different classes of servants employed in the husbandry of this county [Haddingtonshire], viz. the hynd, the cottager, and the unmarried ploughman..Of these the hynd holds the first rank. 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 45 The wives of the hinds or married ploughmen. 1893 Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., A stipulation is often made..that the hind must furnish a female field-worker at a stipulated price per day, with extra wage in harvest. This extra hand is called a ‘bondager’. |
c. A bailiff or steward on a farm (in some parts of England).
| 1495 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 22 No chief Hyne or a Carter or chief Shepeherd above xxs. by the yere. 1585 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 19 Given the same day to the hinde of Shadforthe for kepinge of twoe gimmers which we bought. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 41, I am persuaded, that my hind, Roger Williams, or any man of equal strength, would be able to push his foot through the strongest part of their walls. 1775 F. Gregor tr. Fortescue's De Laud. Leg. xxix. 95 They don't want the attendance of the Hind. [Note] In some Parts of England he is called Bailiff. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 85 Converted into the residence of the hind or bailiff of the estate. 1813 Trewman's Exeter Flying-Post 21 Oct. 4 Wants a Situation as Hind or Bailiff, a Young Man. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Hind (1) a farm bailiff..(2) one entrusted with the charge of cattle. 1878 Cumbld. Gloss., Hine,..a manager of an off-lying farm. |
3. transf. A rustic, a boor.
| c 1570 Pride & Lowl. (1841) 17 For of the hyndes or of the paysauntre I fear I should not have indifferents. 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. i. ii, Why should such a prick-ear'd Hine as this, Be rich? 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 364 A Country Hinde somtimes ambitious to shew his betters that hee is not so simple as you take him. c 1750 Shenstone Elegies vii. 29, I bade low hinds the tow'ring ardour share. 1821 J. Baillie Metr. Leg., Malcolm's Heir xvi, Like the son of a base-born hind. |
† 4. A lad, boy, stripling; hence, more generally, Person, fellow, ‘chap’. Obs.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 485 Ther was mani a wilde hine, that prest was ther to, & wende in to the Gywerie, & woundede & to drowe. 13.. Sir Beues (A.) 497 Ȝif ȝe seþ schipes of painim londe, Selleþ to hem þis ilche hyne. 1375 Barbour Bruce xi. 217 Valtir, steward of scotland, syne, That than wes bot ane berdlass hyne. c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 360 Bothe man and womman child and hyne and page. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 1420 He excused him, þat nobil heyn [= hyne] And saide his duellyng was ferr þeyn [= thyne]. 1513 Douglas æneis v. xiii. 1 All the peple, euery hyne. ? a 1550 Frere & Boy 12 in Ritson Anc. Pop. Poetry 35 A sone..That was a good sturdy ladde, And an happy hyne. |
5. Comb., as † hine-folc; hind-boy, hind-man, etc.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3655 Here hine-folc ðe was hem mide. 1572 Satir. Poems Reform. xxxiii. 294 My Commounis, with my hynd ȝemen. 1581 Ibid. xliii. 190 The hirdis and hinde men in their labeis lay. 1603 Florio Montaigne (1634) 189 A certain swaine or hyne-boy of hers. 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. (1660) 187 Brown bread..for your hinde-servants. |
▪ III. hind, a. (n.3)
(haɪnd)
Also north. 4– hint, 7 hin.
[The OTeut. affinities of this word, and the related hinder, hindmost, hindermore, hindermost, hindward, are certain, but the particular history of the ME. words, and their mutual relations, are somewhat obscure. The older words were: (1) Gothic hindana prep. ‘on that side of, beyond, behind’ = OHG. hintana, Ger. hinten, adv. ‘behind’ = OE. hindan adv. ‘from behind, at the back, in the rear’; (2) Goth. hindar prep. ‘on that side of, beyond, behind’ = OHG. hintar, Ger. hinter prep., in same senses = OE. hinder adv. ‘on the further side, behind, back, down’; this is held to be the acc. neuter of a comparative adj. in -dar = Skr. -taram, Gr. -τερον, the root being hin-, prob. indentical with that of hen, henne, hence; OHG. had the adj. as a positive, hintaro (Ger. hintere) ‘hind, hinder’, compared hintarôro, hintarôst, Ger. hinterst ‘hindmost’; ON. had hindri comp. (rare), hinztr superl.; this adj. was not in OE.; (3) Goth. hindumists superl. ‘hindmost, uttermost’, app. f. *hinduma = OE. hindema (rare) ‘hindmost’. OE. had also (4) hindan-weard adv. ‘towards the farther end’, and hindeweard adj. ‘turned backward’; also (5) the important adv. and prep. behindan, ME. bi-hinden, bi-hinde, behind, the most permanent member of the OE. group, and (with the possible exception of 4) the only one whose survival into ME. is proved. In ME. there arose numerous new forms, viz. before 1300 hinder adj., before 1350 hind adj. and adv., c 1375–1400 hindermore, hindermost, hindmost. Since hind- was not an etymological element, it must have originated from the shortening of some form with a suffix, perh. from ME. be-hind, orig. be-hind-an. In that case, hind-er (if hind goes back before 1300) may have arisen as its normally-formed comparative; if, however, hinder was historically descended from OE. hinder adv. (of which there is no evidence and no strong probability), and taken as a comparative, hind might be inferred from it as its positive degree. Hindermore, hindermost were evidently formed on hinder, and hindmost on hind; the current conjecture that the last was a double superlative formed on the long obsolete OE. hindema is historically untenable. In all these words the original short i is preserved in Sc. and north. Eng.: cf. Sc. hint, ahint, hin'mest.]
A. adj. a. Situated behind, in the rear, or at the back; posterior. Usually opposed to fore, in things existing in pairs front and back, as the limbs of quadrupeds, the wheels of a wagon, etc.
Often hyphened to its n., esp. when forming a specific name of a part, as in hind-spring of a carriage. See C. a.
| 13.. Sir Beues (A.) 3562 Wiþ his hint [v. rr. hynder, hinder] fot he [the horse] him smot. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 350 In like sort, they that haue many feet: vnlesse it be the hin feet of all. 1601 Househ. Ord. (1790) 287 The hind knuckles..of all the muttons and veales. 1670 Narborough Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1711) 31 The Male is smooth all over his hind parts. 1767 Byron's Voy. r. World (1776) 27 A negro butcher..cuts the hamstrings of his hind legs. 1770 G. White Selborne xxviii. 79 The fore-hoofs were upright and shapely, the hind flat and splayed. 1779 J. Moore View Soc. Fr. (1789) I. xxxiv. 300 The lower and hind part of the body. 1822 J. Imison Sc. & Art I. 103 [It] also presses the fore-wheels deeper into the ground than the hind wheels. 1849 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 93 The infatuated little beast dances round him on its hind legs. 1881 Sir F. Fitzwygram Horses (ed. 2) §879 If the fore legs are weak, they may suffer from excessive propulsion communicated to them by powerful hind quarters. 1891 C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 27 In the hind pocket of his tunic. |
b. Hence, applied to the back part of (anything): = ‘back of the ―’. Cf. hind-head.
| 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 114 He divides [the body] into a fore-body:..a hind-body. 1894 R. B. Sharpe Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit. (1896) 10 The greyish shade which pervades the hind neck. |
c. to get on one's hind legs: see leg n. 2 c. to talk the hind leg(s) off a donkey, etc.: see talk v.
B. as n. Short for hind quarter, hind side (see C. a), etc.
| 1892 Daily News 30 May 9/4 Refrigerated beef-quarters, of which there were 850 hinds. |
C. Combinations. a. Of the adj.: see A.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 217 One of their hin-feet. a 1652 Brome Love-sick Court v. ii. Wks. 1873 II. 158 Like burs or bryars Stuck in the hindlocks of our fleecy sheep. a 1687 Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 85 By Hindlock seizing fast Occasion. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Saddle, The Saddle..will be faulty if the Hind-Bow be not exactly the Shape and Circumference of the Body. 1797 Sporting Mag. X. 296 The hind-train [of a horse consists] of the rump, the tail, the haunches and the hind-legs. 1822 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Dist. Corresp., They would show as fair a pair of hind-shifters as the expertest loco-motor in the colony. 1840 Marryat Olla Podr. (Rtldg.) 293 The hind-spring of your carriage. 1855 Owen Skel. & Teeth 23 The ‘ventral’ [fins], answering to the hind-limbs. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Hind-castle, a word formerly used for the poop, as being opposed to fore-castle. 1878 Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. p. xiv, The hind-gut of the Vertebrate is endodermal in origin. 1884 Roe Nat. Ser. Story ix, A hind-quarter of lamb. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 344 The hind-brain is constricted into two lobes—the cerebellum in front, and the medulla oblongata behind. 1894 G. Armatage Horse ii. 14 The Spanish horse..has the good head and neck of that breed [the Barb], but coupled with a weak and drooping hind-quarter. 1932 E. Step Bees, Wasps, Ants Brit. Isles p. xxiv, In flight, the fore- and hind-wings of a side usually act as one. |
b. Of the n.: hind-afore, hind-first, hind-side-foremost.
| 1864 Mrs. H. Wood Shadow of Ashlydyat (1878) 399 Her woollen shawl..had turned hind-afore. 1881 Oxfordsh. Gloss. Suppl. s.v., Turn 'indfust, I tell tha. |
c. quasi-adv. in comb.
| 1668 G. Etherege She would if she could iii. iii, Never hat took the fore-cock and the hindcock at one motion so naturally. 1871 Figure Training 102 No plan will ever..give such elegance to the figure as the hind-lacing. 1872 J. G. Murphy Comm. Lev. xiii. 40 Hind-bald..in contradistinction to the baldness mentioned in the next verse [fore-bald]. |
▪ IV. † hind, v. Obs.
In 5 hynde.
[app. shortened from hinder v.]
trans. To hinder.
| 1426 Audelay Poems 32 Both the father and the moder hyndyd thay schal be. c 1460 G. Ashby Poems (E.E.T.S.) 57/329 Þat he hynde you nat by his greuance. |
▪ V. † hind, adv. Obs. rare.
[app. short for behind: but cf. OE. hindan.]
= behind.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 1846 (Fairf.) Grete perel was be-fore and hinde [Cott. and other MSS. bihind]. |
b. hind and forth, hynt an(t)forth, hind end foremost, backside foremost.
| 13.. K. Alis. (Bodley MS.) 4710 Hynt anforþ [Weber Hyndeforth] hij seten, saunz faile..And hadden in her honde þe tail. Ibid. 5200 Hynd antforþ [Weber and forth] he tourneþ his pas Whan he gooþ on any cas. |