Etymology: Old English hind, strong feminine = Old Norse hind: compare Old Low German *hinda (Middle Dutch, Dutch hinde), Old High German hinta (Middle High German, German hinde), weak feminine, for which some suggest derivation < Gothic hinþan to catch; others would connect it with Greek κεμάς young deer, pricket.

Etymology: Early Middle English hine singular, from earlier Old English (north midlands) and Middle English híne plural; apparently developed < hína , hígna genitive plural of hígan , híwan , in Old Northumbrian hígu , hígo , ‘members of a family or household, domestics’ (see hewe n.): compare hígna fæder (Lindisfarne Gloss.), hína fæder , híne fæder , fæder hígna , -híne (Rushworth Gloss.) = Latin ‘paterfamilias’. For the later change of hine to hind , compare astound v., sound n.³

Etymology: The Old Germanic affinities of this word, and the related hinder , hindmost , hindermore , hindermost , hindward , are certain, but the particular history of the Middle English words, and their mutual relations, are somewhat obscure. The older words were: (1) Gothic hindana preposition ‘on that side of, beyond, behind’ = Old High German hintana , German hinten , adverb ‘behind’ = Old English hindan adverb ‘from behind, at the back, in the rear’; (2) Gothic hindar preposition ‘on that side of, beyond, behind’ = Old High German hintar , German hinter preposition, in same senses = Old English hinder adverb ‘on the further side, behind, back, down’; this is held to be the accusative neuter of a comparative adjective in -dar = Sanskrit -taram , Greek -τερον , the root being hin- , probably identical with that of hen n.¹, hence n.; Old High German had the adjective as a positive, hintaro (German hintere ) ‘hind, hinder’, compared hintarôro , hintarôst , German hinterst ‘hindmost’; Old Norse had hindri comparative (rare), hinztr superlative; this adjective was not in Old English; (3) Gothic hindumists superlative ‘hindmost, uttermost’, apparently < *hinduma = Old English hindema (rare) ‘hindmost’. Old English had also (4) hindan-weard adverb ‘towards the farther end’, and hindeweard adjective ‘turned backward’; also (5) the important adverb and preposition behindan , Middle English bi-hinden , bi-hinde , behind adv., prep., and n., the most permanent member of the Old English group, and (with the possible exception of 4) the only one whose survival into Middle English is proved. In Middle English there arose numerous new forms, viz. before 1300 hinder adjective, before 1350 hind adjective and adverb, c1375–1400hindermore, hindermost, hindmost. Since hind- was not an etymological element, it must have originated from the shortening of some form with a suffix, perhaps < Middle English be-hind, originally be-hind-an. In that case, hind-er (if hind goes back before 1300) may have arisen as its normally-formed comparative; if, however, hinder was historically descended from Old English hinder adverb (of which there is no evidence and no strong probability), and taken as a comparative, hind might be inferred from it as its positive degree. Hindermore, hindermost were evidently formed on hinder, and hindmost on hind; the current conjecture that the last was a double superlative formed on the long obsolete Old English hindema is historically untenable. In all these words the original short i is preserved in Scots and northern English: compare Scots hint, ahint, hin'mest.

Etymology: apparently shortened < hinder v.

Etymology: apparently short for behind: but compare Old English hindan.