whither
Part of speech: adv
noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English whider (“to what place?; into or to which; to what place, where; no matter where, to wherever”), from Old English hwider, hwæder (“to what place, where”), from Proto-Germanic *hwadrê (“to what place, where”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷos (“what; which”), from *kʷ- (the primary interrogative root).
Inflected forms:
form: whithers
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Interrogative senses.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: Whither wilt thou wander, wayfarer?
When as wee duely conſider, whether euery way leadeth, or wiſely ponder with our ſelues to what end we refer each one of our actions, and exact of our ſtraying thoughts a more ſeuere account of their wandering courſe, we ſhal find no victory ſo great, as the ſubduing of vice, nothing ſo hard as to liue well, no ſuch vneſtimable iewell, as an honeſt conuerſation: […]
2. Out. [Second Outlaw] VVhether trauell you? / Val[entine]. To Verona. / 1. Out. [First Outlaw] VVhence came you? / Val. From Millaine.
O Jove! he cry'd, for vvhat Offence have I / Deſerv'd to bear this endleſs Infamy: / VVhence am I forc'd, and vvhether am I born, / Hovv, and vvith vvhat Reproach ſhall I return?
You vvill go avvay: VVhither vvill you go? and vvhat can you do? I vvould as vvillingly go avvay as you, if I knevv vvhither: But vve have no Acquaintance, no Friends. Here vve vvere born, and here vve muſt die.
"Whither are we going?" inquired the lady tragically. "How should I know?" replied Trott with singular coolness; for the events of the evening had completely hardened him.
Forth from the city, while it yet slumbered, went the two poor adventurers, wandering they knew not whither.
The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his robe, and passing on above the moor, sped whither? Not to sea? To sea. To Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them; and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it rolled, and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth.
[W]hat was the use of cavalry in a time of profound peace?—and whither the deuce should the hussars ride?
What he did, whither he went, where he died, might be left to conjecture.
gloss: Interrogative senses.
pos: adv
tags: also
figuratively
humorous
not-comparable
examples: VVhither at length vvilt thou abuſe our patience?
And, if there fall out any preternatural immutations in the elements, any strange concussations of the earth, any direful prodigies in the sky, whither should they be imputed, but to these mighty angels; whom it pleaseth the Most High God to employ in these extraordinary services?
Alas, / Whither has wandered now my partial tongue / When all remains untold which ye would hear?
'Oh, Lancelot, Lancelot! whither are you forcing me?' / 'I am forcing you no-whither. God, the Father of spirits, is leading you! You, who believe in Him, how dare you fight against Him?'
Whither now the DUP [Democratic Unionist Party]? In Westminster, Theresa May's minority government continues to rely on the support of ten DUP members for its very survival. But last week may well have seen the consequences as well as the high point of thumbscrew politics.
gloss: Relative senses.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: [W]e beſche thee, leaue vs not comfortles, but ſende to vs thine holy ghoſt to comfort vs, and exalte vs vnto thy ſame place, whither our ſauiour Chriſte is gone before: […]
[T]hou ſhalt diuide the vvhole prouince of thy Land equally into three partes: that he vvhich for murder is a fugitiue, may haue neere at hand, vvhither to eſcape.
Jeſus anſwered, and ſaid vnto them, Though I beare record of my ſelfe, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I goe: but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I goe.
This Book, it chaulketh out before thine eyes / The man that ſeeks the everlaſting Prize: / It ſhevvs you vvhence he comes, vvhither he goes, / VVhat he leaves undone, alſo vvhat he does: / It alſo ſhovvs you hovv he runs, and runs, / Till he unto the Gate of Glory comes.
It vvas about the Beginning of September 1664, that I, among the Reſt of my Neighbours, heard in ordinary Diſcourſe, that the Plague vvas return'd again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and particularly at Amſterdam and Rotterdam, in the Year 1663. vvhether they ſay, it vvas brought, ſome ſaid from Italy, others from the Levant […]
I come / Thence whither thou must go! The grave is fitter / To take the living than give up the dead; / Yet has thy faith prevail'd, and I am here.
Dined at Melville Castle, whither I went through a snow-storm.
[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.
Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead, and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation can follow you no more.
The wagon jolted on, carrying me I knew not whither.
gloss: Relative senses.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: And with the same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body had been carried.
gloss: Relative senses.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: Ah foole, goe vvith thy ſoule vvhither it goes, / A borrovved title haſt thou bought too deare.
VVhether as He mounted up, the Nevvs He tells / To every Orb and Star; but chiefly to / Th' inquiſitive Spirits, vvhoſe ears and hearts he fils / VVith all the VVonders He had ſeen belovv, […]
[H]is VVorſhip […] gave them proper Letters of Health, and from thence they vvere at Liberty to travel vvhither they pleaſed.
Three days after, just a spark / From Paris, answered by a snap at Caen / Or whither reached the telegraphic wire: / "Quickly to Paris! On arrival, learn / Why you are wanted!" Curt and critical!
gloss: A place to which someone or something goes; also, a condition to which someone or something moves.
pos: noun
tags: formal
examples: To knovv the local beginnings of vvinds, is a thing vvhich requires a deep ſearch and Inquiſition, ſeeing that the VVhence and VVhither of vvinds, are things noted even in Scripture to be abſtruſe and hidden.
Mr. [Henry Charles] Carey usually gives his reader a bird's-eye retrospect, from his balloon at the end of each stage, of the where and whither or the zigzags and dark passages of the route gone over from the starting-point, where was the man upon a solitary island picking fruit, down to his present stopping-place.
The whence and whither of their comings and goings made no impression on the community, and when they disappeared no one asked how or why.
Related words: Modern wordPreposition
here
there
where
to
hither
thither
from
hence
thence
whence
Derived words: anywhither
elsewhither
everywhither
nowhither
somewhither
whither away
whitherever
whithersoever
whitherto
whitherward
whitherwards
Translations:
lang: Arabic
word: إِلَى أَيْنَ
roman: ʔilā ʔayna
lang: Asturian
word: ú
lang: Asturian
word: aú
lang: Asturian
word: onde
lang: Asturian
word: ónde
lang: Belarusian
word: куды́
roman: kudý
lang: Bulgarian
word: накъде́
roman: nakǎdé
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 哪裡 /哪里
roman: nǎlǐ
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 哪兒 /哪儿
roman: nǎr
lang: Czech
word: kam
lang: Danish
word: hvorhen
lang: Dutch
word: waarheen
lang: Dutch
word: werwaarts
lang: Esperanto
word: kien
lang: Faroese
word: hvagar
lang: Finnish
word: minne
lang: Finnish
word: kunne
lang: French
word: où
lang: German
word: wohin
lang: Gothic
word: 𐍈𐌰𐌳𐍂𐌴
roman: ƕadrē
lang: Gothic
word: 𐍈𐌰𐌸
roman: ƕaþ
lang: Ancient Greek
word: ᾗ
roman: hēî
lang: Ancient Greek
word: οἷ
roman: hoî
lang: Ancient Greek
word: ποῖ
roman: poî
lang: Hebrew
word: לְאָן
roman: l’án
lang: Hungarian
word: hova
lang: Hungarian
word: hová
lang: Hungarian
word: merrefelé
lang: Icelandic
word: hvert
lang: Ingrian
word: kuhu
lang: Ingrian
word: kunne
lang: Ingrian
word: mihe
lang: Italian
word: a dove
lang: Japanese
word: どこへ
roman: doko e
lang: Korean
word: 어디
roman: eodi
lang: Korean
word: 어디에
roman: eodie
lang: Australian Kriol
word: wijei
lang: Latin
word: quō
lang: Latvian
word: kur
lang: Latvian
word: kurp
lang: Macedonian
word: каде
roman: kade
lang: Macedonian
word: накаде
roman: nakade
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: hvor
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: hvor hen
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: kor
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: kvar
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: kvart
lang: Church Slavic
word: ꙗмѡ
roman: jamo
lang: Church Slavic
word: камѡ
roman: kamo
lang: Old English
word: hwæder
lang: Pannonian Rusyn
word: кадзи
roman: kadzi
lang: Polish
word: dokąd
lang: Portuguese
word: aonde
lang: Portuguese
word: onde
lang: Portuguese
word: para onde
lang: Romanian
word: încotro
lang: Russian
word: куда́
roman: kudá
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ка̏мо
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ку̀да
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: kȁmo
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: kùda
lang: Slovak
word: kam
lang: Slovene
word: kam
lang: Spanish
word: adónde
lang: Spanish
word: adonde
lang: Swedish
word: vart
lang: Swedish
word: varthän
lang: Swedish
word: vartill
lang: Turkish
word: nereye
lang: Ukrainian
word: куди́
roman: kudý
lang: Vietnamese
word: đâu
lang: Volapük
word: kipladio
lang: Yiddish
word: וווּהין
roman: vuhin