Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Whence

Whence (hwĕns), adv. [OE. whennes, whens (with adverbial s, properly a genitive ending; — see -wards), also whenne, whanene, AS. hwanan, hwanon, hwonan, hwanone; akin to D. when. See When, and cf. Hence, Thence.]

1. From what place; hence, from what or which source, origin, antecedent, premise, or the like; how; — used interrogatively.

Whence hath this man this wisdom? Matt. xiii. 54.

Whence and what art thou? Milton.

2. From what or which place, source, material, cause, etc.; the place, source, etc., from which; — used relatively.

Grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends. Milton.

☞ All the words of this class, whence, where, whither, whereabouts, etc., are occasionally used as pronouns by a harsh construction.

O, how unlike the place from whence they fell? Milton.

☞ From whence, though a pleonasm, is fully authorized by the use of good writers.

From whence come wars and fightings among you? James iv. 1.

Of whence, also a pleonasm, has become obsolete.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.