An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/hinter

by Friedrich Kluge

hinter, prep., from the equiv. MidHG. hinter, hinder, OHG. hintar, prep., ‘behind’; while OHG. nt is changed regularly into nd in MidHG., it is frequently retained when -er (i.e., vocal r) follows as an independent syllable; comp. Winter, from OHG. wintar, munter, from muntar. In hindern the d has been inserted in the normal way, just as in MidHG., and earlier ModHG. hinder is found as well as hinter. Goth. hindar, prep., AS. hinder, prop. an acc. neu. of an old compar. in -τερο-ν, Sans. tara-m. (of which AS. and Goth. have preserved a superl. in -tama-s, Goth. *hinduma, whence hindumists, ‘outermost,’ AS. hindema, ‘the last’). Comp. OInd. pratarám (compar. of pra), adv., ‘further, onwards,’ avatarám (allied to prep. ava), adv., ‘further away,’ vitarám (allied to prep. vi), comp. wider. The compar. hinter is used as an adj. in OHG. hintaro, ModHG. hinter, ‘hinder, posterior.’