thither

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈðɪðə(ɹ)/, /ˈθɪðə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈðɪðɚ/, /ˈθɪðɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪðə(ɹ)

thither (not comparable)

1. (chiefly literary or law, archaic) To that place.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 19:20:

     Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither […]

   • 1661, Robert Boyle, “Physiological Considerations Touching the Experiments Wont to be Employed to Evince either the IV Peripatetick Elements, or the III Chymical Principls of Mixt Bodies. Part of the First Dialogue.”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, […], London: […] J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, […], OCLC 1119844633, page 9:

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

   • 1725 (indicated as 1726)​, [Daniel Defoe], “Letter XXIII. Of the Inland Trade of England, Its Magnitude, and the Great Advantage It is to the Nation in General.”, in The Complete English Tradesman, in Familiar Letters; Directing Him in All the Several Parts and Progressions of Trade. […], volume I, London: […] Charles Rivington […], OCLC 1325854469, page 390:

     [A]ll thoſe goods, and a great deal of money in ſpecie, is return'd hither for and in ballance of our ovvn manufactures and merchandizes exported thither; […]

   • 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, OCLC 1266658027, page 280:

     But the road left the river again; there were certainly twistings and turnings, as the old woman had said, for at one moment it wound hither and the next thither, and at some places it was almost imperceptible.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], OCLC 560090630:

     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. (archaic) To that point, end, or result.

   The argument tended thither.

• Still common in the expression "hither and thither".

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

• thence

• hither
• whither

thither (comparative —, superlative thithermost)

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

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

• See farther