Differences between "hitherto" and "heretofore"

[doctorfate]

1)hitherto
Definition: until now or until a particular time:
Example: Mira revealed hitherto unsuspected talents on the dance floor.

2) heretofore:
definition: until this time before now
Examples: Heretofore her writing has never displayed such depth of feeling.
This technology has created heretofore unimaginable possibilities.

Both terms have the sense of "sth being the case (or not being the case) till this current time"

 

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forum, doctorfate.

Have you a question?

 

[doctorfate]

Is there a difference between "hitherto" and "heretofore?

 

[Rover_KE]

The definitions you have already found illustrate the difference.

Unless you're studying to be a lawyer, you'll be unlike to need to use either of these words.

I see you've asked the same question in English Forums. Please don't post the same thread in multiple forums simultaneously.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, there is. First of all, the meaning is different. 'Heretofore' means something like 'before this point in time' whereas 'hitherto' means something like 'until now'.

Secondly, hitherto is fairly common whereas heretofore isn't, as it's a very formal legal word. Don't try to use it.

 

[SoothingDave]

Neither are common in my experience. It's lawyer language.

 

[jutfrank]

I wouldn't count hitherto as particularly legal language. It's quite commonplace in other relatively formal registers.

 

[Phaedrus]

Let's not forget about thitherto and theretofore. Hitherto forms a pair with thitherto, and heretofore with theretofore. In his gloriously literary language, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) used all four words. My impression has long been that hitherto and heretofore are synonymous, as are thitherto and theretofore.

"If I accept this mission, honorable as you may think it, I assure you I shall not feel myself quite the man I have hitherto been; although there is no obstacle in the way of party obligations or connections to my taking it, if I please" (source).

"She had lost—and she trembled lest it should have departed forever—the faculty of appreciating those works of art, which heretofore had made such a large portion of her happiness" (source).

"We next saw the famous picture of the Virgin, by Cimabue, which was deemed a miracle in its day, being a step in advance of all that had thitherto been known in the pictorial art" (source).

"For it was through your interposition—and that, moreover, unknown to himself—that your early friend was brought before the public, somewhat more prominently than theretofore, in the first volume of Twice-Told Tales" (source).

 

[doctorfate]

@Phaedrus. A question for you, fellow English speaker. You just mentioned thitherto and theretofore previously. I'm now interested in the relationship between hitherto and heretofore and thitherto and theretofore? May you explain the logic behind thitherto and theretofore and then explain how this dichotomy is related to hitherto and heretofore?

 

[Phaedrus]

@Phaedrus. A question for you, fellow English speaker. You just mentioned thitherto and theretofore previously. I'm now interested in the relationship between hitherto and heretofore and thitherto and theretofore? May you explain the logic behind thitherto and theretofore and then explain how this dichotomy is related to hitherto and heretofore?

As I said, I understand them to be synonymous pairs. Of course, that doesn't mean they are used with the same degree of frequency.

I see hitherto much more than I do heretofore. I almost never see thitherto and theretofore, but it always amuses me when I do.

Hitherto and heretofore tend to be used in present-perfect contexts, and thitherto and theretofore in past perfect contexts.

However, it has been my observation that many speakers will use hitherto/heretofore even in past-perfect contexts rather than theretofore/thitherto.

I'd say that hitherto/heretofore can mean either up to now or up to this point in time, and that this point in time can be and often is used instead of that point in time.