thither

From Middle English thider, from Old English þider, an alteration (probably by analogy with hider (“hither”)) of earlier þæder (“to there, to that place”), from Proto-Germanic *þadrē.

• IPA^(key): /ˈθɪðəɹ/, /ˈðɪðəɹ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪðə(r)

thither (not comparable)

1. (chiefly literary or law, dated) To that place.
   • Bible, Genesis xix. 20

     This city is near; […] O, let me escape thither.

   • 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, page 9:

     […] Eleutherius, who thinking himself concern'd, because he brought me thither […]

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 12, The Cyclops:

     And there rises a shining palace whose crystal glittering roof is seen by mariners who traverse the extensive sea in barks built expressly for that purpose, and thither come all herds and fatlings and firstfruits of that land for O'Connell Fitzsimon takes toll of them, a chieftain descended from chieftains.

2. (dated) To that point, end, or result.

   The argument tended thither.

• there, over there, away there; yonder (archaic or dialect)

• thence

• hither
• whither

thither (not comparable)

1. (archaic) The farther, the other and more distant.

   • the thither side of life, that is to say, afterlife

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