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Origin and history of thence

thence(adv.)

"from that place," originally usually implying motion, late 13c., thennes, with adverbial genitive -s + thenne "from that place," from Old English þanone, þanon "from that place." This is reconstructed to be from Proto-Germanic *thanana (source also of Old Saxon thanana, Old Norse þana, Old Frisian thana, Old High German danana, German von dannen), which is related obscurely to the root of then, and ultimately from PIE demonstrative base *to- (see the).

Written with -c- to indicate a voiceless "s" sound. The meaning "from that time" is from late 14c.; the sense of "for that reason" ("from that source") is from 1650s. From thence (late 14c.) is redundant.

Middle English also had thennesward (c. 1400), Old English þanenweard "from that place."

also from late 13c.

Entries linking to thence

the

definite article, late Old English þe, nominative masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun and adjective. After c. 950, it displaced earlier se (masc.), seo (fem.), þæt (neuter), and probably represents se altered by the th- form which was used in the masculine oblique cases.

Old English se is from PIE root *so- "this, that" (source also of Sanskrit sa, Avestan ha, Greek ho, he "the," Irish and Gaelic so "this"). For the þ- forms, see that. The s- forms were superseded in English by mid-13c., with a slightly longer dialectal survival in Kent.

Old English used 10 different words for "the," but did not distinguish "the" from "that." That survived for a time as a definite article before vowels (that one or that other).

In adverbial use, in clauses such as the more the merrier, the first the is a different word, a fossil of Old English þy, the instrumentive case of the neuter demonstrative (see that), used with relative force: "by how much more ____, by so much more ____." Of the common phrases, the sooner the better, is by 1771; the less said the better from 1680s.

In emphatic use, "the pre-eminent, par excellence, most approved or desirable," by 1824, often italicized. With relations (the wife, etc.) by 1838.

then(adv.)

adverb of time, "at that (specified past or future) time," Old English þanne, þænne, þonne, "in that case, under those circumstances," from Proto-Germanic *thana- (source also of Old Frisian thenne, Old Saxon thanna, Dutch dan, Old High German danne, German dann), from PIE demonstrative pronoun root *to- (see the).

Compare than, which originally was the same word.

From late 13c. as "afterward, next in order." Also in Old English as a conjunction, "in that case, therefore."

As an adjective, "being or existing as at that time" (then-husband) from 1580s, often then- and perhaps elliptical for then being. As a noun from early 14c., "that time" (as in by then).

Now and then "at various times" is attested from 1550s; earlier then and then (c. 1200). Then and there "at that time and place" is from mid-15c.

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