Re: USAGE: Hither, thither and yon (was Re: Weekly Vocab 26)

--- Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> wrote:
> On 19 Oct 2003 at 11:55, Roger Mills wrote:
>
> > Padraic Brown wrote:
> >
> >
> > > --- Christian Thalmann <cinga@...> wrote:
> > > > Note:  I took the liberty to replace "whither"
> > > > with "whence", which appears to make more
> > > > sense here.
> > >
> > > Whither as in "where did it go!? I had it, but
> > > now it's gone."
> > >
> > I have to admit, it took a while for me to figure
> out this archaism,
> > although Indonesian makes the distinction:
> >
> > Hither -- 'to here' as in "come-hither looks"
> (kesini)
> > Whither-- 'to where' as in "Whither goest thou?"
> (the translation of the old
> > novel/movie "Quo Vadis?" (kemana)
> > Thither -- 'to there' not encountered enough to
> have a catch-phrase (kesitu,
> > kesana)
>
> What about the phrase "Hither, thither and yon",
> which I've
> encountered in quasi-archiac contexts (i.e. from my
> Grandparents)
> meaning "All over the place"? Is this something
> unique to both sets
> of my grandparents (from different regional and
> social lects), or is
> it just British, or is it archaic, or what is the
> exact distribution?
>
It's used in Texas, but mainly by older rural floks or
to give the effect of being old or rural.  I guess
it's one of many colorful old phrases that's passing
out of currency.

In addition to "hither, thither and yon" I have also
heard it frequently in a shrotend form "hither and
thither" in sentences such as "I was running hither
and thither all morning and STILL ain't got a blessed
thing done."

Adam

>
>
>
> Paul

=====
Il prori ul pa&#38621;veju fi dji atexindu mutu madji
fached. -- Carrajena proverb

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