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Glite Dictionary
to hark back

to hark back

7 8.0
To be like something from an earlier time or to mention it
  • phrasal verb
  • /hɑrk bæk/
translation icon : rememorar
  • I think it's a great replacement and harks back to our history as a community.
  • hark back to a time
  • hark back to the old
  • harken back to an earlier

So, so first of all, I, I want to harken back to the session you and I did a year ago.

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Examples

  • Throughout the European Union, officials and politicians harken back to distant, even fanciful times of perceived national ethnic purity.

    Human Rights Watch

  • I'm drawn to things in Washington, current day Washington, that harken back to Whitman's way of experiencing that city.

  • But I think it's still worth harkening back to those changes of mind.

  • So, so first of all, I, I want to harken back to the session you and I did a year ago.

    The Knowledge Project Podcast

  • Again, harkening back to what I just said, your food is not only fuel and building blocks, it's information.

  • In a way, this design challenge harks back to those times, with perhaps a chance to make it high-tech.

    Academic text (2010)

  • The solutions harken back to Gereta's earlier findings.

    Academic text (2011)

  • So let me just harken back to the anti vax movement that existed, you know, for decades, long before COVID came.

  • The United States clung to a tradition of poor laws that harked back 350 years to Elizabethan England.

    Blog text (12)

  • The architecture of the new library harks back to the classic styles of the 19th century.

Synonyms

to recall
vsto hark back
∞ 2.4

Remember something from the past

focuses more on past origin or resemblance than simple memory
to go back
vsto hark back
287 2.3

Come from an earlier time

often implies referring to or recalling past things rather than original existence
to recapture
vsto hark back
26 6.0

To bring back a past feeling or quality

means referring back to past origins rather than re-experiencing feelings
to harken
vsto hark back
  • Literature
7 8.5

Remind people of something from the past

is the common phrase pointing to past origin rather than old-fashioned use
to hark back to
vsto hark back
6 7.2

To mention or remember something from an earlier time

refers to origin in an earlier period rather than mere mention

How Reminiscent

to evoke
71 4.8
to hark back
7 8.0
to suggest
∞ 2.1
to allude
88 6.5

Surface Forms

hark back infinitive
harked back past
harked back past participle
harking back present participle
harks back third person singular

Morphology

hark + back

The particle 'back' clearly signals an earlier time, and 'hark' historically means 'listen', so there is a partial compositional link to recalling or referring to the past. However, 'hark' is archaic/uncommon and the combined sense 'refer to or be reminiscent of' requires a metaphorical/idiomatic shift that a B1 learner would not reliably predict from the parts alone.

Etymology

Hark back may come from old speech where hark meant 'listen' and back meant 'return'. Imagine being told to 'listen back' so your attention moves to an earlier time, and that's why to hark back means to refer to or recall something from the past.