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Origin and history of whither

whither(adv., conj.)

"to what place, where," Middle English whider, from Old English hwider, from Proto-Germanic *hwithre-, from *hwi- "who" (from PIE root *kwo-, stem of relative and interrogative pronouns) + ending as in hither and thither. Compare Gothic hvadre. The spelling change from -d- to -th- is the same evolution seen in father, hither, etc.

Entries linking to whither

father(n.)

Middle English fader, from Old English fæder "he who begets a child, nearest male ancestor;" also "any lineal male ancestor; the Supreme Being," and by late Old English, "one who exercises parental care over another," from Proto-Germanic *fader (source also of Old Saxon fadar, Old Frisian feder, Dutch vader, Old Norse faðir, Old High German fatar, German vater; in Gothic usually expressed by atta).

This is from the PIE root *pəter- "father" (source also of Sanskrit pitar-, Greek pater, Latin pater, Old Persian pita, Old Irish athir "father"), which is presumably from baby-speak sound "pa." The ending formerly was regarded as an agent-noun affix. The classic example of Grimm's Law, where PIE "p-" becomes Germanic "f-."

The spelling with -th- (15c.) reflects a widespread phonetic shift in Middle English that turned -der to -ther in many words, perhaps reinforced in this case by Old Norse forms; the spelling caught up to pronunciation in 1500s (compare mother (n.), weather (n.), hither, gather).

As a title of various Church dignitaries from c. 1300; the meaning "creator, inventor, author" is from mid-14c.; that of "anything that gives rise to something else" is from late 14c. As a respectful title for an older man, recorded from 1550s. Father-figure is from 1954. Fathers "leading men, elders" is from 1580s.

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

[Wordsworth, 1802]

hither(adv.)

Old English hider, from Proto-Germanic *hithra- (source also of Old Norse heðra "here," Gothic hidre "hither"), from PIE *kitro-, suffixed variant form of root *ko-, the stem of demonstrative pronoun meaning "this" (compare here).

The spelling change from -d- to -th- is the evolution also seen in father, etc. Relation to here is the same as that of thither to there. Hither and yond "this way and that back and forth," is by c. 1200, with yond (adv.).