Word of the Day

: December 31, 2018

hark back

verb HAHRK-BAK

What It Means

1 : to turn back to an earlier topic or circumstance

2 : to go back to something as an origin or source

hark back in Context

"In Tea With The Dames, [Maggie Smith is] joined by fellow dames Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, and Eileen Atkins; the women hark back on their early roles on stage and screen, talk about their ex-husbands and marriages…." — Hunter Harris, The New York Magazine, 26 Sept. 2018

"To stay connected with senior executives, she made heavy use of WhatsApp's group-chat function and called her group Table Talk, an effort to hark back to those early days at her kitchen table." — Sarah Ellison, Vanity Fair, March 2018

Did You Know?

Hark, a very old word meaning "to listen," was used as a cry in hunting. The master of the hunt might cry "Hark! Forward!" or "Hark! Back!" The cries became set phrases, both as nouns and verbs. Thus, a "hark back" was a retracing of a route by dogs and hunters, and to "hark back" was to turn back along the path. From its use in hunting, the verb soon acquired its current figurative meanings. In time, the variants "hearken back" and "harken back" were called, and—like hark—hearken and harken can mean "to listen." Harken, itself, is now used alone to mean "hark back."