hinder

English has two words spelled hinder: the verb, pronounced with a short vowel, and the adjective "rear", pronounced like hind.^[1][2][3]

hinder¹ to impede

Pronunciation

• UK: /ˈhɪndəː/^[4]
• US: /ˈhɪndɚ/^[4]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English hindren, also hinderen,^[5][1] inherited from Old English hindrian (“to harm, injure; to hold back, repress”),^[6][3][7][8] from Proto-Germanic *hindrōną,^[4][6][9] a verb formed from the adverb *hinder (“behind, back”),^[4][6][3] which is also the source of Old Norse hindra, Old Frisian hinderia, Middle Dutch hinderen, Middle Low German hinderen, Old High German hintarōn and German hindern.^{[6][9][10][11]} The adverb survives in hinder (“behind, back”) and Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌽𐌳𐌰𐍂 (hindar, “beyond”).^[7][10] The ground sense is thus "to put or keep back", although in English it is recorded only from the late 14th century;^[6][3] the OED compares further, to put forward.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To harm, injure or impair; to hold back or repress: in the Old English Institutes of Polity, about 1000, where heathenism is to be repressed.^[3][7][2]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart finds Middle English hindren "to cause harm or injury" probably before 1200, and hyndre "to impede, keep back" about 1385, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.^[2] The sense "to harm" lasted until 1639,^[3] and Middle English also used the verb for speaking to someone's injury, to slander or belittle (about 1375 to 1574).^[3][12] The modern sense, to keep back, delay or obstruct, is recorded intransitively from about 1386, in Chaucer's Melibeus, and transitively from 1413;^[3] Chaucer has the verb four times and Gower fourteen.^[12] Johnson (1755) defined it as to obstruct, stop, let or impede.^[13] A noun hinder, hindrance, was used from about 1200 to 1650,^[3] and in handball, squash and similar games a hinder is accidental interference that spoils an opponent's chance to return the ball.^[1] In the dialects of Yorkshire, the Isle of Man and Pembrokeshire the verb meant intransitively to delay or loiter,^[14] and in Hampshire to hinder time was to waste time.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English hindrian, to harm; to repress.^[2][3][7]
• before 1200 – Middle English hindren, to cause harm.^[2][5]
• c. 1200 – noun, a hindrance (obsolete by 1650).^[3]
• c. 1375 – to disparage or slander (obsolete by 1574).^[3]
• c. 1380 – to hinder a person from doing something.^[3]
• c. 1386 – intransitive, to be an obstacle, in Chaucer.^[3]
• 1413 – to keep back, delay or obstruct.^[3]
• 1639 – last record of the sense "to harm".^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make slow or difficult; to hamper or obstruct: Heavy snow hindered the rescue teams.^[1][15][3]
2. To keep from happening or continuing; to prevent, often with from: Nothing could hinder him from leaving.^[1][15][3]
3. To be an obstacle; to cause delay.^[15][3]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1639) To harm, injure or impair.^[3][1]

Noun

1. In handball, squash and similar games, accidental interference that prevents a fair return of the ball.^[1]

Word family

• hinderer
• hinderingly
• hindrance
• unhindered

hinder² rear

Pronunciation

• UK: /ˈhaɪ̯n.dəː/^[4]
• US: /ˈhaɪ̯n.dɚ/^[4]

Etymology

The adjective "rear" is inherited from Middle English hinder, also hindore,^[5][2] probably inherited from Old English hinder (“behind, back, afterwards”), an adverb,^{[1][5][2][11]} perhaps through an unrecorded Old English adjective,^[6] and often treated as the comparative of hind.^[5][6] The OED instead takes it as formed within English from the adjective hind and the comparative suffix,^[3] and the Shorter and Concise Oxford suggest it was deduced from hinderweard (“backward”).^[10][16] The Old English adverb is related to Old High German hintar, German hinter and Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌽𐌳𐌰𐍂 (hindar, “behind”),^[6][11][7] and Holthausen compares Old Norse hindri (“later, further”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Situated behind, at the back or in the rear: about 1290, in the South English Legendary life of St Brendan.^[3] Barnhart dates hindore to about 1300,^[2] Merriam-Webster the adjective to the 13th century,^[1] and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Despite its comparative form, it does not differ in sense from hind, although it is used more often.^[3] In Scots it meant "last" of time, as in this hinder night, last night (from 1487, in Barbour's Bruce),^[3] while from 1551 to 1669 it also meant "latter", as opposed to former.^[3] The superlative hindermost is recorded from 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective by its position, opposite the face, quoting Sidney on beasts that stand "upon their hinder feet".^[13] As a noun it has meant the hindquarters or buttocks since about 1857,^[3][1] and in Scotland and in English dialects from Northumberland to Cornwall the adjective kept the senses "back" and "remote";^[14] in Bedfordshire and East Anglia hinder was also an adverb meaning "yonder".^[14][1]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – situated at the rear.^[3]
• c. 1300 – hindore.^[2]
• 1398 – hindermost.^[2]
• 1487 – Scots, last, most recent.^[3]
• 1551 – latter (obsolete by 1669).^[3]
• c. 1857 – noun, hindquarters, buttocks.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Situated at the back or rear; posterior: The dog stood up on its hinder legs.^[1][10][3]
2. (Scottish) Last or most recent, as in this hinder night, last night.^[3]
3. (dialect) Yonder.^[1][14]

Noun

1. (chiefly dialect) The buttocks or hindquarters.^[1][3]

Word family

• hindermost

Related words

• hind
• hindmost
• behind
• hinterland

Usage notes

A third Middle English hinder, an adjective meaning crafty or deceitful (about 1200 to 1290), was taken from the Old English compounds in hinder-, such as hindergēap (“crafty”) and hinderscipe (“knavery”).^[3][5] In Scots and northern English the adjective "rear" is said with a short i, like the verb.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press