Here
Here is this place rather than another that place which might be called there. It is the place where a thinking subject is, or places himself.
Just plain here
Here is the place you are now, wherever that happens to be. In English, here can function as a pronoun, an adverb, and in some dialects as an adjective. It comes from Old English hêr, and as such is cognate with Latin cis, "on this side of".
It can be contrasted with there, which is somewhere else; and with anywhere, which theoretically includes both here and all possible theres; and with nowhere, which excludes both here and there.
When you tell someone to come hither you are asking them to move to the place in which you are, which is here. There is a difference. Similarly, hence means "from here". "Hence" also means "therefore", in which sense it expresses a figurative rather than literal meaning of "from here" — , as opposed to thence, which means "therefrom".
Languages have different approaches for the division of space. In English, here and there correspond roughly with this and that; this is the object that is here, while that refers to what's over there. Latin, by contrast, divides space three ways. While hic can mean "here" as an adverb, or "this one" as a pronoun, and ille corresponds to "that one yonder" (illic is the corresponding adverb of location), Latin also adds iste, "that one of yours," and istic, "there by you". Other languages include even more possible divisions of space.
If you are human, it is extremely likely that you are within the Virgo Supercluster, inside the Local Group and in that more specifically in a spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy in the solar system of the Sun. You may be in orbit around earth, but more likely you are somewhere on or below the surface of it or submerged or in flight or are suspended above it by a human construction or natural entity or phenomenon.
If you are not human, you may well be elsewhere. That too is here.
Scientific and quantifiable here
For each, physically there is most likely only one here while there are an infinity of theres. Here can be quantified with coordinates such as (on Earth): latitude S 39o 28' 33.5", longitude W 88 o 15' 04.8"; but, that, for you, is probably there.
Now and then, in quantum physics, some places are neither here nor there; strictly speaking, they are neither now nor then, either.
In spacetime here is now as opposed to then, past, or when, future. Here and now may be all there is, depending on your level of awareness or consciousness. If we were to travel back to the future, where would we find ourselves on arrival? Here moves.
Religious and philosophical here
Omnipresence is one of the traditional attributes of God in monotheistic theology. It means that wherever you are, God is here.
Baba Ram Dass, the American Hindu writer, wrote a 1971 book in which he advised his readers to Be Here Now.
See also here
- Location: Coordinate systems
- Navigation: How to get from here to there.
- GPS: Global Positioning System - precisely here or there