hence
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhɛns/
rhymes: -ɛns
Etymology: A later Middle English spelling, retaining the voiceless -s, of hennes (henne + adverbial genitive ending -s), from Old English heonan (“away", "hence”), from a Proto-West Germanic *hin-, from Proto-Germanic *hiz, and Proto-Germanic *-anē.
Cognate with Old Saxon hinan, Old High German hinnan (German hinnen), Dutch heen, Swedish hän. Related to Old English her (“here”).
Senses: examples: text: I'm going hence, because you have insulted me.
text: Get thee hence, Satan!
text: O Gertrude, come away: / The sun no ſooner ſhall the Mountaines touch, / But we will ſhip him hence,
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 272, column 1:
text: Ye men of Galilee! / Why stand ye looking up to heaven, where Him ye ne’er may see, / Neither ascending hence, nor returning hither again?
ref: 1849, Arthur Hugh Clough, Easter Day (Naples, 1849):
text: `Now leave me,' she said, `and sleep if ye may. I must watch and think, for to-morrow night we go hence, and the time is long since I trod the path that we must follow.'
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
synonyms: herefrom
glosses: From here, from this place, away.
examples: text: After a long battle, my poor daughter was taken hence.
glosses: From the living or from this world.
examples: text: A year hence it will be forgotten.
text: […]And now farewell / Till half an hour hence.
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: There may be an occasion to do so two years hence.
ref: 2024, Marshall H. Tanick, “Diversity on the bench should not only be about gender and race”, in MinnPost:
glosses: In the future from now.
raw_tags: of a length of time
examples: text: I shall go to Japan and hence will not be here in time for the party.
text: The purse is handmade and hence very expensive.
text: Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
ref: 1910, Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles (translator), The Art of War, Section VI: Weak Points and Strong, 8
text: Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
ref: 1910, [1513], Niccolò Machiavelli, chapter VI, in Ninian Hill Thomson, transl., The Prince:
text: That hence arises the peculiar Unhappiness of that Business, which other Callings are no way liable to;
ref: 1731 May 27, Benjamin Franklin, “Apology for Printers”, in The Pennsylvania Gazette:
synonyms: consequently
glosses: As a result; therefore, for this reason.
Derived terms: henceafter
henceforth
henceforward
hencefrom
herehence
therehence
Related terms: whence
thence