(亦作 from whence) formal or Archaic <正式, 古>
- from what place or source从何处; 从哪儿：
whence does Parliament derive this power?
国会是从何处获得这一权力的?
1
- from which; from where从那个; 从那里：
the Ural mountains, whence the ore is procured.
乌拉尔山脉, 那里是出产这种矿石的地方。
1.1
- to the place from which到原来的地方：
he will be sent back whence he came.
他会被送回到他来的地方去。
1.2
- as a consequence of which由此, 据此：
whence it followed that the strategies were obsolete.
由此得出这样的结论：这些策略已过时了。
USAGE
Strictly speaking， whence means 'from what place' ， as in whence did you come? Thus， the preposition from in from whence did you come? is redundant and its use is considered incorrect by some. The use with from is very common， though （occurring in more than 20 per cent of citations for whence in the British National Corpus）， and has been used by reputable writers since the 14th century. It is now broadly accepted in standard English.
词源
Middle English whennes, from earlier whenne （from Old English hwanon, of Germanic origin）+-s3 （later respelled -ce to denote the unvoiced sound）.