adv. Orig. and chiefly Sc. and north. [Orig. two words, THERE 17 and ANENT prep.] About, concerning, or in reference to that matter, business, etc.; relating thereto.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 20789 (Gött.). Bot þar enent [v.r. thereagain], sais Ieronim, He wil noght take þe boke on him.
1562. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 218. For satisfying of hir Hienes thairanent. Ibid. (1578), II. 700. Ordour to be takin thairanent with expeditioun.
1681. Sc. Acts Jas. II. (1820), VIII. 243/2. According to the tenour of the respective acts of Parliament thereanent provided.
1726. Wodrow Corr. (1843), III. 243. To hear the state of this affair … and bring in an overture thereanent.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, xii. I will gage my life upon his making my words good thereanent.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xxi. The reader would not care to have my impressions thereanent.
1868. Visct. Strangford, Select. (1869), II. 311. The public prints of an earlier date in this year … may be consulted thereanent with propriety.
Hence (with advb. genitive) † Thereanents (-anentis, -anendes) adv., in same sense; in quot. c. 1400 app. = THEREABOUTS 1.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), viii. 30. It [þe Reed See] is þer anentes vi. myle brade.
1552. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 133. [We sall] leif nocht behind that lyis in our possibiliteis thairanentis.
1564. Child-Marriages, 26. Procured the Counselles lettres theranendes.
c. 1568. Reg. Murray, in H. Campbell, Love Lett. Mary Q. Scots (1824), 218. My Lord of Argyll … spak largely … theiranents to the Queen herself.
