Hereby

How to spell hereby

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hereby

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hereby mean?

1. adverbBy means of this statement or document; as a direct result of these very words.

Hereby in a sentence

• The parties hereby agree to the terms set out below.

• The undersigned hereby confirms that the information given is true and complete.

Where does hereby come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, formed in the straightforward Germanic way by joining the adverb 'here' to the preposition 'by'. The 'here' element comes from Old English 'her', meaning 'in this place', and 'by' from Old English 'bi', meaning 'near' or 'by means of'; both are ancient words shared with related Germanic languages such as Dutch and German. Together the parts literally mean 'by this' or 'by means of this', and in formal writing 'this' refers to the very document or statement in which the word appears. English has long built such adverbs out of 'here' plus a preposition, giving us a whole family including herein, hereto, hereof, hereunto, and hereafter. By the late medieval and early modern period 'hereby' had settled firmly into legal and official language, where it still announces that an action is being carried out by the wording itself.

How the word is built

• here (this point/document)
• by (by means of)