hence - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A later Middle English spelling, retaining the voiceless -s, of hennes (henne + adverbial genitive ending -s), from Old English heonan (“away", "hence”), from a Proto-West Germanic *hin-, from Proto-Germanic *hiz, and Proto-Germanic *-anē.

Cognate with Old Saxon hinan, Old High German hinnan (German hinnen), Dutch heen, Swedish hän. Related to Old English her (“here”).

hence (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) From here, from this place, away.
    Synonym: herefrom
    I'm going hence, because you have insulted me.
    Get thee hence, Satan!
  2. (archaic, figuratively) From the living or from this world.
    After a long battle, my poor daughter was taken hence.
  3. (of a length of time) In the future from now.
    A year hence it will be forgotten.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
      […] And now farewell / Till half an hour hence.
    • 2024, Marshall H. Tanick, “Diversity on the bench should not only be about gender and race”, in MinnPost‎[1]:
      There may be an occasion to do so two years hence.
  4. (conjunctive) As a result; therefore, for this reason.
    Synonym: consequently
    I shall go to Japan and hence will not be here in time for the party.
    The purse is handmade and hence very expensive.
    • 1910, Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles (translator), The Art of War, Section VI: Weak Points and Strong, 8:
      Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
    • 1910, [1513], Niccolò Machiavelli, chapter VI, in Ninian Hill Thomson, transl., The Prince:
      Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.

from here

as a result, therefore

Translations to be checked

hence

  1. (obsolete) Go away! Begone!

hence (third-person singular simple present hences, present participle hencing, simple past and past participle henced)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To utter "hence!" to; to send away.
  2. (dated, intransitive) To depart; to go away.