Etymology From hark (“to listen attentively”) + back (“to or in a previous condition or place”, adverb), originally a hunting command to hounds meaning “Listen! Go back!”.
1
Hobbies, Hunting, Lifestyle Of hounds: to retrace a course in order to pick up the lost scent of prey.
2
Broadly To return to where one has previously been; to retrace one's steps.
He must have overshot the mark, and must hark back. So he turned his weary horse's head, and made his way back along the road to the spot where his spoor struck into it.1885, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “Hans’ City of Rest”, in The Witch’s Head […], volume III, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], →OCLC, page 18:
3
Figuratively To allude, return, or revert (to a subject previously mentioned, etc.); also, to evoke, or long or pine for (a past era or event).
Mr. Flemyng, who had been assuaging his thirst with more champagne during the afternoon, had harked back to the subject of his morning's discourse, and was laying down an authoritative scheme of ethics, in the course of which sundry hard words, such as transcendentalism, pseudo-materialism and the like, lost a syllable here and there.1881, W[illiam] E[dward] Norris, “A Racecourse and a Cathedral”, in Matrimony. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 76–77:
Harking back to the theme of a series of speeches he [George W. Bush] delivered last week, he said he was reminded that "there's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict the same kind of damage again."2006 September 11, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Bush Mourns 9/11 at Ground Zero as N.Y. Remembers”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Dec 2020:
4
Hobbies, Hunting, Lifestyle To call back (hounds); to recall.
Etymology From hark (“to listen attentively”) + back (“to or in a previous condition or place”, adverb), originally a hunting command to hounds meaning “Listen! Go back!”.
› Alternative form of hark-back.
1
Hobbies, Hunting, Lifestyle An act of hounds retracing a course in order to pick up the lost scent of prey.
2
Figuratively An act of alluding, returning, or reverting (to a subject previously mentioned, etc.); also, an act of evoking, or longing or pining for (a past era or event).
hark-back
noun
Etymology Deverbal from hark back.
1
Hobbies, Hunting, Lifestyle An act of hounds retracing a course in order to pick up the lost scent of prey.
2
Figuratively An act of alluding, returning, or reverting (to a subject previously mentioned, etc.); also, an act of evoking, or longing or pining for (a past era or event).
The addendum cancelling the closures refers to 14 pages […] in which Table 183 is reproduced in its old form with connections to and from Liverpool, Bradford, York, Edinburgh etc. – a hark-back to G.C. ambitions.1961 June, “Talking of Trains: Early Timetables – but at a Price”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 325: