hindmost

Etymology

It is formed from English hind + -most,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} though the OED words this as only apparent.^[2] The adjective in its first part, recorded from about 1300, is apparently short for behind,^[2][7][3] and Etymonline allows for the influence of Old English hindan (“from behind”).^[3] The OED reports a conjecture that the word is a double superlative, from hindema (“last”) and the suffix -est, prompted by Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌽𐌳𐌿𐌼𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (hindumists, “outermost”) and by the analogy of Middle English formest, later foremost.^[2] It sets this aside: the Old English word occurs only in “Beowulf”, and 500 or 600 years separate it from Barbour's henmast.^[2][8] The Century Dictionary likewise derived the word from the two English elements and noted that the Old English double superlative it would require is not found.^[9] Holthausen, however, names hindmost as the modern reflex of that Old English adjective.^[10] The parallel hindermost, hindermest, is formed from hinder and is recorded from before 1425.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Furthest behind, last in position: the OED's first quotation, of 1487, is from a manuscript of Barbour's Bruce, composed before 1380, in the Scots form henmast: “So stoutly that the henmast trymmyll”.^[2] This agrees with Etymonline's date of the late 14th century^[3] and with Merriam-Webster Unabridged's 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of position came with a sense of order or time, “last”, which the OED first quotes from Tyndale's Bible (1526), and which it marks as chiefly Scottish.^[2] Modern Scots, the OED adds, keeps hinmest for time and succession and hintmest for fixed position.^[2] The English Dialect Dictionary records the word in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England in the sense “last, final”, in such uses as the henmost time and the hindmost minute, and gives hindmost of three as a game played on village greens in Ulster.^[12] The proverbial the devil take the hindmost is quoted by the OED from the 1620 printing of Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, and it also appears with Satan or hell.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as “the last; the lag; that which comes in the rear”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1487 – furthest behind, last in position, in a manuscript of Barbour's Bruce.^[2]
• 1526 – last in order, succession or time, in Tyndale's Bible.^[2]
• 1620 – the devil take the hindmost, in Philaster.^[2] Etymonline dates the play to 1611.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Furthest back or nearest the rear; last in position: the hindmost wagon in the column.^[14][4][2]
2. Most remote.^[4][2]
3. (chiefly Scottish) Last in order, succession or time.^[2][5][12]
4. the devil take the hindmost: a proverbial phrase, also with Satan or hell.^[2][5]

Related words

• hind
• hinder
• hindermost
• behind
• foremost

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Whitney, William Dwight, ed. (1889–1891), The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, New York: The Century Co. (1901 printing)
10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b 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)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins