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Glite Dictionary
to hark back to

to hark back to

6 7.2
To mention or remember something from an earlier time
  • phrasal verb
  • /hɑrk bæk tu/
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

  • The design of the new building harks back to a time when architecture was more ornate.

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

    Human Rights Watch

  • 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)

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

  • This is literally again, harkening back to rereading or reintegrating the things that have worked.

  • Starr agrees that a national system is long overdue: "Really, community care harks back to the poor law."

    Academic text (2009)

  • ADAM: The home is not only really quirky, but functional, and harks back to 1950s nostalgia.

    Blog text (1)

Synonyms

to recall
vsto hark back to
∞ 2.4

Remember something from the past

is about referring to or being reminiscent of earlier periods rather than mere remembering
to go back
vsto hark back to
287 2.3

Come from an earlier time

is used to refer to or evoke earlier times rather than state origin
to hark back
vsto hark back to
7 8.0

To be like something from an earlier time or to mention it

is the longer form including a preposition that points to an earlier time
to harken
vsto hark back to
  • Literature
7 8.5

Remind people of something from the past

is the common phrasal expression used to mention or evoke earlier times

How Reminiscent

to evoke
71 4.8
to recall
∞ 2.4
to hark back to
6 7.2
to mention
∞ 1.0
to allude
88 6.5

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

hark + back + to

The sense 'to refer to or be reminiscent of something earlier' is only partly recoverable from the parts: 'back' signals return/earlier reference, but 'hark' (literally ‘listen/pay attention’) does not directly mean ‘refer’ or ‘be reminiscent’. The meaning is a metaphorical extension (returning attention to the past) that some learners might plausibly infer, but the idiomatic/archaic flavour of 'hark' and the non-literal composition make the expression not fully predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Hark back to may come from the old verb hark meaning 'listen' and back meaning 'return'. Picture someone stopping and listening again to a sound from the past, and you can see why the phrase now means 'to refer to' or 'to be like' something earlier.