whence

English

WOTD – 9 November 2012

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English whennes, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English hwanone (with adverbial genitive -s), related to hwænne (whence when). Analyzable as when +‎ -s.

Pronunciation

• enPR: hwĕns, IPA^(key): /ʍɛns/
• (in accents with the wine-whine merger) enPR: wĕns, IPA^(key): /wɛns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛns

Adverb

whence (not comparable)

1. (archaic, formal or literary) From where; from which place or source.

   Whence came I?

   "Pork" comes from French, whence we get most of our modern cooking terms.

   • 1611, King James Bible‎^Wikisource, John 8:14:

     Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Chapter 4:

     Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed?

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Sea-chest”, in Treasure Island‎^Wikisource:

     [W]hat greatly encouraged me, it was in an opposite direction from that whence the blind man had made his appearance and whither he had presumably returned.

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 564:

     […] But when I had bestridden the plank, quoth I to myself, "Thou deserveth all that betideth thee. All this is decreed to me of Allah (whose name be exalted!), to turn me from my greed of gain, whence ariseth all that I endure, for I have wealth galore."

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, Chapter 3:

     At first I could not tell what this new sound was, nor whence it came, and now it seemed a little noise close by, and now a great noise in the distance. And then it grew nearer and more defined, and in a moment I knew it was the sound of voices talking.

Usage notes

• This word is uncommon in contemporary usage; from where is now usually substituted (as in the example sentence: Where did I come from? or From where did I come?). Whence is now mainly encountered in older works and in poetic or literary writing.
• From whence has a strong literary precedent, appearing in Wyclif's Bible translation, Shakespeare and the King James Bible, as well as in the writings of numerous Victorian-era writers. In recent times, however, it has been criticized as redundant by usage commentators.

Antonyms

• whither

Derived terms

Terms derived from whence

• anywhence
• elsewhence
• everywhence
• nowhence

• somewhence
• whencever
• whenceforth
• whencesoever

Related terms

• hence
• thence

Translations

from where; from which place or source

• Arabic: مِن أَيْن (min ʔayn), مِن حَيْثُ (min ḥayṯu)

  North Levantine Arabic: منين (mnen)

• Armenian: ուստի (hy) (usti)
• Bashkir: ҡайҙан (qayźan)
• Basque: nondik
• Belarusian: адку́ль (adkúlʹ)
• Bulgarian: откъде́ (bg) (otkǎdé)
• Czech: odkud (cs)
• Danish: hvorfra, hvoraf, hveden
• Dutch: waarvandaan (nl)
• Esperanto: de kie, el kie
• Faroese: hvaðani
• Finnish: mistä (fi)
• Fore: forrt, gerrt
• French: d’où (fr)
• Georgian: საიდან (saidan)
• German: woher (de)
• Greek: αφού (el) (afoú)

  Ancient: πόθεν (póthen) (direct interrogative), ὅθεν (hóthen) (relative), ὁπόθεν (hopóthen) (indirect interrogative)

• Hebrew: מֵאַיִן (meáin), מִנַּיִן (he) (minnáin)
• Hungarian: honnan (hu), honnét (hu)
• Icelandic: hvaðan (is)
• Ido: deube (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: onde (it), donde (it), da dove
• Japanese: どこから (doko kara)
• Korean: 어디서 (eodiseo)
• Latin: unde (la)
• Macedonian: од каде (od kade)
• Maori: nō hea, nō whea
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hvorfra

  Nynorsk: kvar ifrå, kor ifrå

• Old English: hwanon
• Polish: skąd (pl)
• Portuguese: donde (pt), de onde
• Quechua: maymanta
• Romanian: de unde
• Russian: отку́да (ru) (otkúda)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: odakle (sh), otkud (sh)

• Slovak: odkiaľ
• Slovene: od kod, od koder
• Spanish: de donde
• Swedish: varifrån (sv), var i från, vadan (sv)
• Tibetan: ག་ནས (ga nas)
• Turkish: nereden (tr)
• Ukrainian: зві́дки (zvídky)

Conjunction

whence

1. (literary, poetic) Used for introducing the result of a fact that has just been stated.

   The work is slow and dangerous, whence the high costs.

   I scored more than you in the exam, whence we can conclude that I am better at the subject than you are.

Antonyms

• whither

Related terms

• hence
• thence

Translations

conjunction

• Arabic: مِن حَيْث (min ḥayṯ)
• Faroese: hvaðani
• Finnish: josta (fi), mistä (fi)
• French: d’où (fr)
• Galician: de aí, de onde, do cal
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: von daher
• Italian: onde (it), donde (it), da dove, da cui
• Portuguese: de onde, donde (pt)
• Spanish: de ahí (es), de donde
• Swedish: därav (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Danish: hvorfra, hvoraf
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} waarvandaan (nl), ^{(please verify)} waar … vandaan…
• Esperanto: el kie
• Finnish: mistä (fi)
• German: ^{(please verify)} woher (de)
• Greek: πούθε (el) (poúthe), από πού (apó poú), από όπου (apó ópou)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: ahonnan (hu), ahonnét (hu), ahonnan (hu), amiből
• Macedonian: откаде (otkade)
• Romanian: de unde
• Russian: отку́да (ru) (otkúda), отсю́да (ru) (otsjúda), сле́довательно (ru) (slédovatelʹno), зна́чит (ru) (znáčit)
• Swedish: varav (sv), var av, varifrån (sv), var i från, vadan (sv)