# Prper Use of "Whence"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prper-use-of-whence/442281>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 21, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prper-use-of-whence/442281 "2008-03-21T22:35:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prper-use-of-whence/442281/21 "2008-03-26T00:08:17Z")

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[QUOTE=Gorsnak]  
If “from whence” is good enough for Shakespeare and Milton, it’s good enough for me.  
[/QUOTE]

Or for that matter, Frank Loesser:

> [@Frank Loesser](#):
>
> So take back your mink.  
> To from whence it came

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prper-use-of-whence/442281/22 "2008-03-26T17:33:39Z")

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[QUOTE=Bambi Hassenpfeffer]  
A word I have only ever heard from my mother. A Hoosier, like you.

So to use _whence_ properly: “Whence come dast and dasn’t?”  
[/QUOTE]

I believe it came from darest and darest not. Darest sometimes comes as “durst,” as in Frank Zappa’s _The Torture Never Stops_. (“…disagree? No one durst.”) More simply put, “I da’sn’t,” means, “I don’t dare.”

I’m pretty sure I didn’t pick up dasn’t from my parents, but I don’t remember where I first met the word. It seemed to fit with the mock pompous tone I was using. 😉 I don’t even know if it gets one apostrophe or two.

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**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prper-use-of-whence/442281/23 "2008-03-26T22:35:59Z")

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I think “from whence” is useful for stylistic purposes. I don’t see it as substandard either.

Redundancy is a common feature of language, even if the pedants rail against it.

I can see not using double negatives because the objections are now so ingrained in most of our psyches, but “from whence” seems fine to me in most cases.

Whence this strange objection to “from whence”?

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