Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hitherao! excl.

[blend of English hither with Hind. ????? (idhar?o), come here!, from ??? (idhar), adv. hither, and ?? (?o), imperative of ??? (?n?), to come]

(orig. Anglo-Ind.) come here!

[Ind][G.R. Gleig] Subaltern’s Log-book (1829) I 126: [A]ccordingly Mr. Styles and the other gentlemen were hoisted into the palanquins, and the party taken quietly on the shoulders of bearers, who carried them off on crying out ‘hitherem how, &c.’.
[UK]T. Hook Jack Brag 197: ‘Hitherow, come along: – where is the creature? Here – help me up’.
E.H. Rogers How to Speak Hind?st?n? 6: The following are a few other common instances of incorrect spelling and pronunciation used by Anglo-Indians: [...] poggle for p?gal (a fool); hitherow for idhara,o (come here).
[UK]Kipling ‘The God from the Machine’ in Soldiers Three (1890) 18: I waved to the dhriver. ‘Hitherao!’ sez I, an’ he hitheraoed till I judged he was at proper distance, an’ thin I tuk him, fair an’ square betune the eyes’.
‘The Traveller’ [R. Kipling] ‘Mr Anthony Dawking’ in Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 11 Jan. n.p.: ‘So I took a leg of the bed and I broke open the cook-’ouse and I made my own khana. And now ’e don't run away no more. Hitherow tum’.
[Ind]M. Macmillan Globe Trotter in India 89: The Hindustani idharao is converted into hitherao, in order that it may contain the English adverb ‘hither’.
[Ind]H. Compton Free Lance in a Far Land 94: ‘It isn’t ‘Have done, Sergeant’ and ‘Drat the man’ with them, Bess. I’ll take my corporal oath: but ‘Hitherow’ and numblescrumble!’.
[UK]B. Cable Old Contemptibles 92: ‘Why don’t the soors come an’ fight it out?’ said Corporal Smedley. ‘They bukked enough about wot they was goin’ to do. Why don’t they hitherao an’ do it?’.
[US]H.M. Rideout Dulcarnon 205: He rose, beckoned the slave of the fan, and walked to the door. ‘Hitherao’.
[Ind]R.P. Russ Hussein: An Entertainment 31: His voice was rather squeaky and wavering. He waited a moment, and then called again, ‘Hitherao, hathi-raj. Ohe Jehangir!’.
[UK]A. Burgess Long Trip to Teatime (2017) 107: She called in a deep voice: ‘Come on, you. Jildi, hitherao, or I’ll thrash you within an inch of your life’.