Whence vs How - What's the difference?
whence | how |
From where; from which place or source.
* 1818 , (Mary Shelley), , Chapter 4:
* 1898 , , Chapter 3:
*
*
(literary, poetic) (used for introducing the result of a fact that has just been stated)
To what degree.
*
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In what manner.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
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In what state.
The means by which something is accomplished.
* 1924 , Joseph Rickaby, Studies on God and His Creatures? , p. 102:
In which way; in such way.
That, the fact that, the way that.
* 2010 April 24, Jesse McKinley, “
(dialectal) An artificial barrow or tumulus.
(dialectal) A small hill in northern England. (Usage preserved mainly in place names.)
As adverbs the difference between whence and how
is that whence is from where; from which place or source while how is to what degree.As conjunctions the difference between whence and how
is that whence is (literary|poetic) (used for introducing the result of a fact that has just been stated) while how is in which way; in such way.As a noun how is
the means by which something is accomplished or how can be (dialectal) an artificial barrow or tumulus.As an interjection how is
.whence
English
Adverb
(-)- Whence came I?
- "Pork" comes from French, whence we get most of our modern cooking terms.
- Whence , I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed?
- At first I could not tell what this new sound was, nor whence it came, and now it seemed a little noise close by, and now a great noise in the distance. And then it grew nearer and more defined, and in a moment I knew it was the sound of voices talking.
Usage notes
* This word is uncommon in modern usage; from where'' is now usually substituted (as in the example sentence: ''Where did I come from?'' or ''From where did I come? ). It is now chiefly encountered in older works, or in poetic or literary writing. * From whence has a strong literary precedent, appearing in Shakespeare and the King James Bible as well as in the writings of numerous Victorian-era writers. In recent times, however, it has been criticized as redundant by usage commentators.Conjunction
(English Conjunctions)- The work is slow and dangerous, whence the high costs.
- I scored more than you in the exam, whence we can conclude that I am better at the subject than you are.
Antonyms
* (l)how
English
(wikipedia how)Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), (etyl) . /hw/ > /h/ due to in (etyl); compare (m), which underwent this change later, and thus is spelt ''wh ((etyl) spelling of /hw/) but pronounced /h/ (it previously had a different vowel, hence avoided the spelling and sound change in Old English). Vowel change per Great Vowel Shift. Akin to (etyl) (m) ((etyl) (m)), . See (m) and compare (m).Adverb
(-)Boundary problems, passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.
- How are you?
- How was your vacation?
Usage notes
* See usage notes on else. * How good is it?'' means "To what extent is it good?", whereas ''How is it good?'' means "In what manner is it good?". Likewise, ''I know how good it is'' means "I know the extent to which it is good", whereas ''I know how it is good means "I know the manner in which it is good".Derived terms
* how many * how much * how come * how so * know-howNoun
(en noun)- I am not interested in the why, but in the how .
- It is an a posteriori argument, evincing the fact, but not the how .
Conjunction
(English Conjunctions)- I remember how to solve this puzzle.
Don’t Call It ‘Pot’ in This Circle; It’s a Profession]”, in [[w:The New York Times, The New York Times], page A1:
- “There’s this real Al Capone fear that they’re going to get our guys, not on marijuana, but on something else,” Mr. Edson said, referring to how Capone was eventually charged with tax evasion rather than criminal activity.