Another hastily constructed page by Phil Carmody Home / Language / HereIsNotAPlace.html
Some online discussion included a misinterpretation of Juliet's "wherefore", and I got wondering how far the "not a place" "here-", "there-", and "where-" words have infiltrated.
Disclaimer: I'm not a linguist; this is purely observational, what I've scraped from various dictionaries and other hopefully-reliable resources.
It seems clear that many, but far from all, of the *here- words refer to locations ("here"). Many are causality oriented ("therefore"), some refer to an object ("hereof"), and others are merely temporal ("hereafter"). As I build this table of which words have what domain, I may discover others. So, basically, I'm just going to tabulate what I find.
Forms in (brackets) are rare or archaic, struck out seem
absent.
Use "L" refers to locations, "O" to objects, "T" to temporal aspects, and
"C" to causality. "-" implies the form couldn't be found or its use
ascertained.
| Form/Suffix | here- form | here- use | there- form | there- use | where- form | where- use | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *here | here | LO | there | L | where | L | |
| *hence | hence | LC | thence | LC | whence | LC | |
| *hither | hither | L | thither | L | whither | L | |
| -in | herein | OL | therein | L | wherein | L | |
| -after | hereafter | OT | thereafter | OT | - | ||
| -by | hereby | C | (thereby) | C | whereby | C | |
| -as | - | (thereas) | L | whereas | C | ||
| -of | (hereof) | O | (thereof) | - | whereof | C | |
| -about(s) | hereabout(s) | L | thereabout(s) | L | whereabout(s) | L | |
| -upon | (hereupon) | L | thereupon | TC | whereupon | TC | |
| *henceforth | henceforth | TC | (thenceforth) | - | - | ||
| -fore | - | therefore | C | (wherefore) | C | ||
| -to | hereto | LT | thereto | LT | whereto | LT | |
| -tofore | heretofore | TC | (theretofore) | - | (wheretofore) | - | |
| -under | hereunder | L | thereunder | L | (whereunder) | L | |
| -soever | - | (theresoever) | - | wheresoever | L | pairs with all questions | |
| -(e)ver | - | - | wherever | L | pairs with all questions | ||
| -with | herewith | O | (therewith) | O | - | "wherewithal" survives | |
| -at | (hereat) | CT | thereat | LTC | whereat | LT |
Most of the evaluation of how existent and extant a word is is based on what the Online Etymological Dictionary, the search-engine-accessible parts of the OED, or Collin's Dictionary says. However, views as to whether something is archaic or not is filtered through my own somewhat perverse gaze. Basically, if I'd use it, it's not archaic, and screw you all. I still happily use "yclept"; if it's good enough for Vonnegut, it's good enough for me.
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