"H" Word Origins

headwaiter

Origin

From head + waiter.

headway

Old English

Partly from Old English hēafodweġ ("main road"), and partly a shortening of "ahead-way," describing forward progress.

headwear

Origin

From head + -wear. Piecewise doublet of chefwear.

heady

Middle English

From Middle English hedi, formed from head plus the adjective suffix -y, originally meaning something that "goes to your head."

heal

Old English

From Old English hǣlan, related to the word whole — to heal originally meant "to make whole again."

healer

Middle English

From Middle English helere, formed from heal plus the agent suffix -er.

healing

Old English

From Old English hǣling, formed from heal plus -ing.

health

Old English

From Old English hǣlþ, built from the same root as whole and heal, plus the abstract-noun suffix -th.

healthful

Origin

From Middle English helthful, helþful, helþeful, equivalent to health + -ful.

healthy

Origin

Formed from health plus the adjective suffix -y.

Healy

Irish

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó hÉilidhe (“descendant of the claimant”), from éilidhe (“claimant”), or from Irish Ó hÉalaighthe (“descendant of Éaladhach”), a personal name from ealadhach (“ingenious”).

heap

Old English

From Old English hēap, related to words in other Germanic languages meaning "pile" or "hill."

hear

Old English

From Old English hīeran, an ancient Germanic word ultimately built from roots meaning "sharp" and "ear" — literally "to be sharp-eared."

hearable

Origin

From hear + -able.

heard

Old English

The irregular past tense of hear, going back to Old English forms of the same verb.

hearer

Origin

From Middle English heerar, herere, hyerere, equivalent to hear + -er.

hearership

Origin

From hearer + -ship.

hearing

Origin

Formed from hear plus -ing.

hearken

Origin

From Middle English herkenen (“to listen (attentively); to pay attention, take heed”) [and other forms], from Old English hercnian, heorcnian, hyrcnian, from *heorcian (“to hark”) infixed with -n-, from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hauzijaną (“to hear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱh₂owsyéti (“to be sharp-eared, hear well”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) + *h₂ṓws (“ear”) + *-yéti (denominative suffix), thus equivalent to hark + -en. The spelling of the English word was probably influenced by hear; a similarly analogical pronunciation existed in Early Modern English.

Hearn

Old English

* As an Irish surname, from Ó hEachthighearna (literally “descendant of Eachthighearna”) from each (“horse”) + tighearna (“lord, master”). * As an Irish surname, also from Ó hUidhrín; see Herron. * As an English surname, spelling variant of Heron. * As an English surname, from Old English hyrne (“river bend, hill recess”). * As an English surname, related to the root of horn. * As an English surname, named after Herne in Bedfordshire, from Old English hær (“stone”).

hearne

Origin

Variant of Hearn.

hearsay

Origin

From the old phrase "to hear [people] say," compressed over time into the single word hearsay.

hearse

Latin

From Old French herce, originally a frame used to hold candles over a coffin, itself from a Latin word for a harrow — an odd path from farm tool to funeral vehicle.

hearsomeness

Origin

From Middle English hersumnesse, from Old English hīersumnes (“obedience”), equivalent to hearsome + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian hearsumens (“obedience”).

Hearst

Middle English

Uncertain origin, likely connected to the Middle English word for a deer, the ancestor of modern "hart."

heart

Old English · 1977

From Old English heorte, an ancient Indo-European word for "heart"; the figurative "to love" sense of the verb only dates to the 1977 "I ❤ NY" ad campaign.

heartache

Old English

From Old English roots meaning simply "heart" plus "ache" — a very old, literal way of describing emotional pain as if it were a physical pain in the chest.

heartbeat

Origin

A straightforward compound of "heart" and "beat" — used literally for centuries before being borrowed by computing for its "signal of life" idea.

heartbreak

Origin

A compound of "heart" and "break," picturing grief as literally shattering the heart — a very old and universal metaphor across languages.

heartbreaker

Origin

From "heart" + "breaker" — someone or something that "breaks" hearts, whether romantically or through crushing disappointment.

heartbreaking

Origin

From heart + breaking.

heartbroken

Origin

From "heart" + "broken" — the heart pictured as literally shattered by grief.

heartburn

Middle English

From Middle English words for "heart" and "burn" — the sensation sits near where the heart is, even though it's actually caused by stomach acid.

hearted

Origin

From "heart" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ed," used almost always attached to another word describing character.

heartfelt

Origin

From "heart" + "felt" — something genuinely felt in the heart, not just said out of politeness.

heartful

Origin

From heart + -ful.

hearth

Old English

From Old English heorþ, an ancient Germanic word for the fireplace at the center of a home — the root behind the phrase "hearth and home."

heartily

Old English

From "hearty" plus the adverb-forming "-ly" — going back to an Old English word meaning "whole-heartedly."

heartland

Origin

From "heart" (in the figurative sense of "core" or "center") + "land."

heartless

Old English

From Old English heortlēas, literally "without a heart" — originally could also mean cowardly, though the "cruel, unfeeling" sense is now dominant.

heartling

Origin

From heart + -ling.

heartrending

Origin

From heart + rending.

heartsease

Origin

From heart + -s- + ease: an infusion made from the plant is traditionally believed to cure lovesickness.

heartsore

Origin

From heart + sore. Compare Saterland Frisian Haatseer (“heartache”), West Frisian hertsear (“heartache”), Dutch hartzeer (“heartache”), German Low German Hartsehr (“heartache”).

heartspent

Origin

From heart + spent.

heartstopping

Origin

From heart + stopping.

heartstring

Origin

From heart + string.

heartstrings

Origin

Originally an anatomical term for the tendons imagined to hold the heart in place; it later became a poetic way to describe deep emotion, as in "tugging at the heartstrings."