heft

Etymology

The noun comes from Late Middle English heft (“heaviness; something heavy, a weight”), from heven (“to lift, raise”) plus -th (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc., forming nouns), on the analogy of weft developing from weven (modern English weave); compare also cleft from cleave and theft from thieve, where the same development happened in Old English or earlier languages. The English word can also be analysed as heave + -t (suffix forming nouns from verbs). The verb probably derives from the noun.