''hitherto'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''hitherto'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260714000159-00-⌔

hitherto - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adverb

hitherto (not comparable)

• (formal, also law) Up to this or that time.
  • ✤ Synonyms: up to now, heretofore; see also Thesaurus: hitherto
  • ✤ Antonyms: from now on, henceforth; see also Thesaurus: henceforth
  • ✤ All men att the begynnynge⸝ ſett forth goode wyne⸝ And when men be dronke⸝ then thatt which is worſſe: Butt thou haſt kept backe the goode wyne hetherto.¹
  • ✤ [T]he greateſt and moſt active part of Mankind, has never hetherto been vvell contented vvith the preſent.²
  • ✤ But Charles, as vvell from unvvillingneſs to alienate a province of ſo much value, as from diſguſt at the Pope, vvho had hitherto refuſed to join in the vvar againſt Francis, rejected the propoſal.³
  • ✤ The exhaustless conjecturings of that evening’s full conversation, made such of the small party, as had hitherto been strangers, well acquainted with each other’s turn of mind; […]⁴
  • ✤ The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.⁵
  • ✤ The results of this study argue for a greater endonormativity in Indian English than has hitherto been recognised.⁶
  • ✤ To the best of my recollection, the origin of the Celebration Parallax arose from the need to defend “affirmative action,” a very unpopular policy since its inception. The party line therefore goes like this: People of color must be granted explicit preferences to overcome America’s “legacy of racism” so that we may “diversify” America’s power centers and end white male dominance, a move that—in addition to being necessary to address the country’s inherent racism—improves those institutions by infusing them with different and hitherto neglected points of view. Also, kids of color need “role models” who “look like themselves.”⁷
  • ✤ North of Tain […], the line reaches the southern shore of Dornoch Firth. Here, the railway and the A9 trunk road, which have hitherto run close together, diverge.⁸
• (chiefly archaic or literary)
  • Up to this place.
    • ✤ Hither to ſhalt thou come, but no further, and here ſhalt thou laye downe thy proude and hye wawes.${}^{[sic–meaningwaves]}$⁹
    • ✤ The Archdeacon hath diuided it/Into three limits very equally:/England from Trent, and Seuerne hitherto,/By South and Eaſt is to my part aſsignd: […]¹⁰
    • ✤ Thus far the very Reputation of Defending our Rights does Service to the Publick, it checks and diſcourages Tyranny, and is the Shore and Sea-dyke againſt Arbitrary Povver, and ſays to its proud VVaves, Hitherto ſhall ye come and no further.¹¹
  • In speech or writing: up to this point; thus far.
    • ✤ The great man dovvne, you marke his fauourite flyes,/The poore aduanc’d, makes friends of enemies,/And hetherto doth loue on fortune tend,/For vvho not needes, ſhall neuer lacke a friend,/And vvho in vvant a hollovv friend doth try,/Directly ſeaſons him his enemy.¹²
    • ✤ “Really, Mr. Collins,” cried Elizabeth with some warmth, “you puzzle me exceedingly. If what I have hitherto said can appear to you in the form of encouragement, I know not how to express my refusal in such a way as to convince you of its being one.”¹³
• (obsolete) Synonym of hereto (“regarding this subject; to achieve this result; to this end”).
  • ✤ And the eſpeciall intent of this meeting is, to receive our Biſhops directions for the adminiſtration of the Sacraments and Preaching, as his Articles informe us. Hitherto, if I can but hold me by my text, I hope not to fall into impertinencies.¹⁴

Adjective

hitherto (not comparable)

• (archaic) Existing or occurring before now; former, preceding, previous.
  • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: former
  • ✤ At the same time, then, that the categorical imperative can enjoin nothing without liability to exception but disinterested obedience to itself, it will have no lack of definite content. The particular duties which it enjoins will at least be all those in the practice of which, according to the hitherto experience of men, some progress is made towards the fulfilment of man’s capabilities, or some condition necessary to that progress is satisfied.¹⁵

Etymology

The adverb is derived from Middle English hiderto (“to the present time, until now; up to this point”),¹⁶ from hider (“in this direction, to or toward this place; up to the present time, until now”)¹⁷ (from Old English hider (“to here, hither”)¹⁸) + to (“in the direction of, toward; etc.”).¹⁹ By surface analysis, hither +‎ to.²⁰

The adjective is derived from the adverb.²⁰

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌhɪðəˈtuː/, /ˈhɪðətuː/, [ˌhɪðəˈtʰuː], [ˈhɪðətʰuː]
• (General American) IPA: /ˈhɪðəɹˌtu/, /ˌhɪðəɹˈtu/, [ˈhɪðəɹˌtʰu], [ˌhɪðəɹˈtʰu]
• Audio (General American); /ˈhɪðəɹˌtu/: (file) 🔊 🔊
• Hyphenation: hi‧ther‧to

Printed 2026-07-14.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Jhon ij:[10], folio cxxj, recto: ↩

2. 1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Office of the Soveraign Representative”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 185: ↩

3. 1769, William Robertson, “Book VII”, in The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V. […], volume III, London: […] W. and W. Strahan, for W[illiam] Strahan, T[homas] Cadell, […]; and J. Balfour, […], →OCLC, page 10: ↩

4. 1830, Anna Maria Porter, chapter X, in The Barony. […], volume III, London: […] [A[ndrew] & R[obert] Spottiswoode] for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, page 460: ↩

5. 1888, Karl Marx; Frederick [i.e., Friedrich] Engels, “Bourgeois and Proletarians”, in Samuel Moore, transl., edited by Frederick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party […] Authorized English Translation […], Chicago, Ill.: Charles H[ope] Kerr & Company, published [1910], →OCLC, page 12: ↩

6. 2014 March, James Lambert, “Diachronic Stability in Indian English Lexis”, in World Englishes, volume 33, number 1, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 124: ↩

7. 2021 July 26, Michael Anton, ““That’s Not Happening and It’s Good That It Is””, in The American Mind ‎${}^{[1]}$, archived from the original on 15 July 2022: ↩

8. 2021 October 20, Paul Stephen, “Leisure and Pleasure on the Far North Line”, in Rail, number 942, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 49: ↩

9. 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Job xxxviij:[11], folio xi, recto, column 1: ↩

10. c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], signature F1, recto: ↩

11. 1694, Samuel Johnson, Notes upon the Phœnix Edition of the Pastoral Letter. Part I, London: Printed for the author, →OCLC, page 64: ↩

12. c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], signatures H2, recto – H2, verso: ↩

13. 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XIX, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 251: ↩

14. 1635 August 27 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), John Pocklington, Sunday No Sabbath. A Sermon Preached before the Lord Bishop of Lincolne, at His Lordships Visitation at Ampthill in the County of Bedford, Aug. 17. 1635, London: […] Robert Young, published 1636, →OCLC, page 2: ↩

15. 1883 (date written), Thomas Hill Green, “Characteristics of the Moral Ideal”, in A[ndrew] C[ecil] Bradley, editor, Prolegomena to Ethics, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1883, →OCLC, paragraph 197, page 207: ↩

16. “hider-tō, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

17. “hider, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

18. Joseph Bosworth (1882), “hider, adv.”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 535, column 1. ↩

19. “tọ̄̆, prep.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

20. “hitherto, adv. and adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2025.; “hitherto, adv.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩ ↩²

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