adv., conj. (sb.) Forms: 4–5 whannes, whennes, (4 huannes, wannes, whennus, -ys), 4–6 whens, 5 qwens, 6 whense, Sc. quhens, quhence, 6– whence. [13th c. ME. whannes, whennes, f. whanne, WHENNE + -S suffix. In all senses often preceded by redundant from, † fro (FROM 15 a), occas. of (obs. or arch.).]
I. Interrogative uses. (Now replaced in ordinary colloquial speech by where … from.)
1. From what place? a. in a direct question.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 161 (Camb. MS.). Whannes beo ȝe, faire gumes, þat her to londe beoþ icume.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xvi. 8. Whens comyst thow, and whithir gost thow?
c. 1430. Syr Tryam., 431. What do ye here, madam? Fro whens come ye? [ed. Copland (c. 1550) Of whens be you…?].
1526. Tindale, John vi. 5. Whence shall we bye breed that these might eate?
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, II. v. N ij. From whense haste thou brought hym hyther?
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., xxvii. (1870), 192. Of whens be you? I am of England.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. i. 103. Of whence, I pray? Tra. Of Pisa, sir.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 945. Whence am I forc’d, and whether am I born?
1720. Delany, News fr. Parnass., 19. From whence is this Fool?
1773. Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., V. My wife, as I’m a Christian. From whence can she come?
1855. Tennyson, The Brook, 22. O babbling brook,… Whence come you?
b. in an indirect question.
c. 1300. St. Brandan, 288. We nuteth noȝt bote thurf God whannes hit is i-brouȝt.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 532. Þis folke frayned hym firste fro whennes he come.
c. 1450. Merlin, 44. They axed hym of whens he was.
1526. Tindale, John ix. 29. Thys felowe, we knowe not from whence he ys.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., May, 261. The Kidd … Asked … who, and whence that he were.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, VI. 1193. He … ask’d his airy Guide, What, and of whence was he. Ibid., VIII. 150. Resolve me, Strangers, whence, and what you are.
1710. De Foe, Ess. Publick Credit, 6. We hear the sound thereof, but hardly know whence it [sc. the wind] comes, or whither it goes.
1802. Maria Edgeworth, Moral T., Forester, v. He inquired whence the water came.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, xxv. There was no question put of whence I came or whither I was going.
2. gen. and transf. From what source, origin or cause? a. in a direct question.
c. 1305. Pop. Treat. Sci. (1841), 139. Loke hou crokede thu were ther,… Whannes [earlier text Fra ȝwam] cometh hit siththe to bere the so heȝe?
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xxi. 25. Of whennes was the baptem of Joon; of heuene, or of men?
1526. Tindale, Luke i. 43. Whens hapeneth this to me, that the mother off my lorde shulde come to me?
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 9. From whence these Murmurs, and this change of Mind?
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. xvii. But whence … have you concluded … that the writer is of our church?
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xix. From whence have we derived that spiritual profit?
b. in an indirect question.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 53. I am wel admeruaylled fro whens that cometh to the suche presumpcion to speke so hastyly.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., viii. 28. There are some that can tell … from whence you borrow … your much bragd-of Concent.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 856. Strange point and new! Doctrin which we would know whence learnt.
1718. Prior, Solomon, I. 459. Ask Reason now, whence Light and Shade were giv’n.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 237. An apt similitude shall show Whence springs the conduct that offends you so.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, vii. The laughter and mirth of her uncle, and Hannah, and Mary, she could not tell whence originating.
1859. Tennyson, Pelleas & Ettarre, 520. For so the words were flash’d into his heart He knew not whence or wherefore.
1867. F. Harrison, in Questions Ref. Parlt., 255. No man can say from whence the greater danger to order arises.
II. Relative or conjunctive uses.
3. From which place; from or out of which.
Also with ellipsis of there or thither in the main clause.
1382. Wyclif, Ps. cxx[i]. 1. I rered vp myn eȝen in to the mounteynes; whennys [1388 fro whannus] shal come helpe to me.
1535. Coverdale, Deut. xi. 10. The londe of Egipte, whence ye came out.
1560. Bible (Geneva), Isa. li. 1. Loke vnto the rocke, whence ye are hewen.
a. 1700. Diary, 30 June 1644. A dreadfull cliff, from whence the country and river yeald a most incomparable prospect.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 910. Mossy rocks, Whence on each hand the gushing waters play.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxxiv. The little room … looked into a garden, whence a wicket-gate opened into a small paddock.
1887. Swinburne, Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894), 141. The quarter from whence the following lucubration is addressed.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., III. i. 37. Let him walke from whence he came. Ibid. (1591), Two Gent., II. iv. 122. Now tell me: how do al from whence you came?
1611. Bible, Job x. 21. Let me alone that I may take comfort a litle, Before I goe whence [Coverdale thyther, from whence] I shall not returne.
† b. as compound relative: From the place in which, from where. poet. Obs. rare.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, III. ii. 124. Come thou home Rossillion, Whence honor but of danger winnes a scarre, As oft it looses all. Ibid. (1607), Timon, I. i. 22. Our Poesie is as a Goume [printed Gowne] which vses [i.e., oozes] From whence ’tis nourisht.
4. gen. and transf. From which source or origin (as a product); from which cause (as a result); from which fact or circumstance (as an inference).
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., I. (Arb.), 61. This opinion is not French, but plaine Turckishe: from whens, som French fetche moe faultes, than this.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. iii. 1. Vertue … Whence spring all noble deeds and neuer dying fame.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 32. To lay down such Principles, as from whence it would follow, that any Real Entity in Nature did come from Nothing and go to Nothing.
1731–8. Swift, Pol. Contersat., Introd. 29. From whence I did then conclude … that Wine doth not inspire Politeness.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 111. Faith, the root whence only can arise The graces of a life that wins the skies.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, vi. 81. St. Ive … became a successful advocate, whence he is now venerated by Breton lawyers as their patron.
1885. Goodale, Physiol. Bot., 400. During its revolution a tip bows or nods successively to all points of the compass; whence the name nutation.
III. 5. as sb. (nonce-use.) That from which something comes or arises; place of origin; source.
1832. Motley, in Corr. (1889), I. 18. I was summoned before the Senate of the University, and then wrote my name and my whences and whats, etc., etc., in a great book.
1869. Mrs. Whitney, Hitherto, xviii. 242. We start from some whence, and are expressed through to somewhere.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, I. iv. (1878), 30. Uncertain as to the Whence and Whither of humanity.
