Idioms for here
Origin of here
before 900; Middle English; Old English
hēr; cognate with German
hier, Old Norse, Gothic
hēr
usage note for here
10. See
there.
historical usage of here
The very basic word
here, a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root
ko-, ke-, kē(i)-, ki- “this, this here,” has so many relatives in so many Indo-European languages that it is hard to choose examples.
From ke-, Latin has cedo “gimme,” cēterus (from ce-eteros ) “the other, the rest of,” hic (from hic-ce ) “this, this here,” and ecce “look!” Greek has (e)keînos (from (e)ke-enos ) “that, that one (over there),” and ekeî “there, over there.” The variant ki- yields Latin cis “on this side of” (as in Gallia Cisalpina “Cisalpine Gaul,” that part of Italy in the Po Valley between the Alps and the Apennines, where Gauls lived).
In Germanic ki- becomes hi-, from which Old English has hē, his, him and the neuter pronoun hit (English he, his, him and it ), hire, the genitive and dative singular feminine pronoun (English her ), and heom, him, the dative plural of the third person pronoun, now the colloquial English ‘em. Old High German derives hiutu “this day, today” (German heute ). Hi- and the adverbial or locative suffix -r yields Gothic hēr, Old English hēr, and German hier.
Finally, Hittite has ki “this” and kinun “now.”
From ke-, Latin has cedo “gimme,” cēterus (from ce-eteros ) “the other, the rest of,” hic (from hic-ce ) “this, this here,” and ecce “look!” Greek has (e)keînos (from (e)ke-enos ) “that, that one (over there),” and ekeî “there, over there.” The variant ki- yields Latin cis “on this side of” (as in Gallia Cisalpina “Cisalpine Gaul,” that part of Italy in the Po Valley between the Alps and the Apennines, where Gauls lived).
In Germanic ki- becomes hi-, from which Old English has hē, his, him and the neuter pronoun hit (English he, his, him and it ), hire, the genitive and dative singular feminine pronoun (English her ), and heom, him, the dative plural of the third person pronoun, now the colloquial English ‘em. Old High German derives hiutu “this day, today” (German heute ). Hi- and the adverbial or locative suffix -r yields Gothic hēr, Old English hēr, and German hier.
Finally, Hittite has ki “this” and kinun “now.”
Words nearby here
British Dictionary definitions for neither here nor there (1 of 2)
here
/ (hɪə) /
adverb
noun
this place
they leave here tonight
here and now or the here and now
the present time
Word Origin for here
Old English
hēr; related to Old Norse
hēr, Old High German
hiar, Old Saxon
hīr
British Dictionary definitions for neither here nor there (2 of 2)
Here
/ (ˈjɪrə) /
interjection
Southern African
an exclamation of surprise or dismay
Word Origin for Here
Afrikaans: Lord
Idioms and Phrases with neither here nor there (1 of 2)
neither here nor there
Unimportant, irrelevant, as in You pay for the movie and I'll get the dinner check, or vice versa—it's neither here nor there. This expression was first recorded in 1583. Also see beside the point.
Idioms and Phrases with neither here nor there (2 of 2)
here