whence

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English whennes, also spelled whannes,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English whenne (“from what place”) + -es (“adverbial genitive ending”),^[3][5][6][7] the ending also seen in hence and thence.^[7][8][6] The Middle English adverb whenne is from Old English hwanon (“whence”), also hwanan, hwanone, hwonan and, in Northumbrian, hwona,^[2][5][9] which is related to hwænne (“when”), the source of when.^[5][6] The Old English word has cognates in Old Saxon hwanan, Old High German hwanān and Old Frisian hwana,^[4][10][9] and is akin to hwā (“who”), the source of who;^[4] the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-.^[11] The spelling ending in -ce, first recorded in Tyndale's Bible of 1526 according to Barnhart, or in the 1520s according to Etymonline, shows that the final sound was voiceless, as in twice and pence.^{[6][5][7][12]} Johnson (1755) explained the word as formed from where on the analogy of hence from here.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

From what place?, in a direct question: about 1225 in Barnhart's dating, in King Horn, where newcomers from the sea are asked “Whannes beo ȝe, faire gumes, Þat her to londe beoþ icume?”^[6][2] The OED dates the manuscript before 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Soon the word also asked after a source, origin or cause (c. 1305),^[3][2] and in the Wycliffite Bible of 1382 it introduced relative clauses, “from which place”.^[3] From before 1568, in Ascham's Scholemaster, it also introduced an inference, “from which fact”.^[3] Chaucer used whennes 27 times,^[14] including of whennes, “from whence”.^[15] In all its senses the word has often been preceded by a redundant from (formerly also fro), occasionally by of.^[3] A noun, a place of origin or source, appears in 1832, in a letter of J. L. Motley.^[3][4] In ordinary speech the interrogative use has given way to where … from, and the word is now formal or archaic.^[3][10][7]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – from what place?, in a direct question, in King Horn.^[6][2] The OED dates the manuscript before 1300.^[3]
• c. 1300 – in an indirect question.^[3]
• c. 1305 – from what source or cause?^[3][2]
• 1382 – relative: from which place, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[3]
• 1526 – the spelling with -ce, in Tyndale's Bible.^[6] Etymonline dates it to the 1520s.^[5]
• before 1568 – from which fact, introducing an inference.^[3]
• 1832 – noun, a place of origin or source.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (formal or archaic) From what place: Whence came these travellers?^{[10][11][4][3]}
2. From what source, origin or cause: Whence does this rumour spring?^[11][4][10]

Conjunction

1. From which place; out of which: They went back to the village whence they had set out.^[11][4][3]
2. From which source or cause; by reason of which: The cat was found on a Friday, whence its name.^[11][3]

Noun

1. A place of origin; a source: the whence of a tradition.^[4][3][7]

Word family

• whencesoever

Related words

• hence
• thence
• when
• who
• where
• whither

Usage notes

Collins advises against from whence, since whence already means “from which place”.^[10] Dictionary.com answers that from whence is old and standard, used in the King James Bible and by Shakespeare, Dryden and Dickens, while the parallel from thence is rare.^[16]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House