The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 3 letter word SO FAR
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
S
O
F
A
R
More clues leading to the result SO FAR
- Comfortable thing, right up to this point
- Fly around Finland's capital — until now
- Female in ascendant movement up to now
- Close to terror under settee, until now
- Fly without loud instruction up to this point
- Hitherto, two notes are joined
- up to now
- Designation of fighter plane brought in to fly until now
- Very distant until now
- Note fliers must be brought up to date
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Hitherto" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case hitherto = so far.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.