hither

From Old English hider, from Proto-Germanic *hidrê. Cognate with Latin citer.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɪðə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɪðɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪðə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: hi‧ther

hither (not comparable)

1. (literary or archaic) To this place, to here.

   He went hither and thither.

   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     SATURNINUS: Go fetch them hither to us presently.
     TITUS: Why, there they are, both baked in that pie,
     Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
     Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 280:

     But the road left the river again; there were certainly twistings and turnings, as the old woman had said, for at one moment it wound hither and the next thither, and at some places it was almost imperceptible.

   • 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 44:

     "How now, you scullions and cullions: bring hither a pair of cow's hooves to out face this contumelious caitiff."

2. over here

• Compare to the pronominal adverb "hereto" which follows the pattern of "preposition + what" or "preposition + which".

• hence

• thither
• whither

hither (not comparable)

1. (archaic) On this side; the nearer.

   Synonym: (literary) citerior

   • 1954, Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, Chatto & Windus, page 30:

     The essential Not-self could be perceived very clearly in things and in living creatures on the hither side of good and evil.

• Hither Green