"H" Word Origins

heartthrob

Origin

From "heart" + "throb" (a pounding or racing beat) — the idea that just seeing this person makes your heart race.

hearty

Origin

From "heart" plus the adjective suffix "-y" — originally meaning full of heart, i.e. vigorous and sincere.

heat

Old English

From Old English hǣtu, an ancient Germanic word for warmth, related to "hot."

heath

Old English

From Old English hǣþ, an old Germanic word for wild, untilled land — the same root that gives us "heather" and "heathen" (originally "one who lives on the heath").

Heathcliff

Origin

From heath + cliff.

Heathen

Origin

Ultimately from the same root as "heath," originally describing people who lived on the wild heath outside Christianized towns.

heathenism

Origin

From heathen + -ism, coined in the 17th century in place of the then-obsolete heathendom. First attested in Francis Bacon's Of the advancement of learning (1605), II. xiv. §9: "The heresy of the Anthropomorphites … and the opinion of Epicurus, answerable to the same in heathenism, who supposed the gods to be in human shape" (OED).

heathenous

Origin

Alteration of earlier heathenish, analysable as heathen + -ous.

heather

Old English

From Old English hǣþ (related to "heath"), the plant that grows wild on heathland.

Heathrow

Origin

Named after the small hamlet of Heath Row that once stood where the airport was built — literally "row of houses by the heath."

heating

Origin

From heat + -ing.

heave

Old English

From Old English hebban, meaning to lift or raise — the same ancient root that gives us "heavy."

heaven

Old English

From Old English heofon, an ancient Germanic word originally meaning "sky," which came to also mean the divine dwelling place above it.

heavenlike

Origin

From heaven + -like.

heavenly

Origin

From "heaven" plus the adjective suffix "-ly."

heavens

Origin

Variant of Evans.

heavily

Middle English

From Middle English hevely, hevyliche, from Old English hefiġlīċe (“heavily; grievously”), equivalent to heavy + -ly.

heaviness

Origin

From "heavy" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ness."

heavy

Old English

From Old English hefiġ, related to "heave" — something that requires effort to lift.

heavyset

Origin

From heavy + set.

heavyweight

Origin

From "heavy" + "weight," originally describing the top weight division in boxing before it broadened to mean any dominant figure.

hebdomad

Origin

From Late Latin hebdomada (“number seven; group of seven; seven days”), hebdomas (“number seven; seven days; seventh day”), from Ancient Greek ἑβδομάς (hebdomás, “group of seven, especially seven days or seven years”), from ἕβδομος (hébdomos, “seventh”) + -ᾰ́ς (-ắs, suffix forming abstract nouns of number from numerals). The word is cognate with French hebdomadaire, hebdo (“weekly periodical”), hebdomadairement (“weekly”), Portuguese hebdomadário (“weekly periodical”), Spanish hebdomadario (“weekly; weekly periodical; hebdomadary”).

hebdomadal

Origin

From Latin hebdomadālis. According to The Poly-Olbion Project, coined by John Selden in 1612.

hebdomadally

Origin

From hebdomadal + -ly.

hebdomadary

Origin

From Late Latin hebdomadārius, from hebdomas (“week”).

hebetate

Origin

First attested in 1574; borrowed from Latin hebetātus, perfect passive participle of hebetō (“to dull”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix).

hebetic

Origin

From Ancient Greek ἡβητικός (hēbētikós), equivalent to ἡβητ(ής) (hēbēt(ḗs)) (“adult”; ἡβη- (hēbē-), variant stem of ἡβᾶν (hēbân, “to reach puberty”), verbal derivative of ἥβη (hḗbē, “youth”) + -τής (-tḗs, agent suffix)) + ικός (ikós, “-ic”).

hebetude

Origin

From Late Latin hebetūdō.

Hebrew

Hebrew

Traced through Greek and Aramaic back to the Hebrew word ʿiḇrī, likely meaning "one from the other side" (of the river), referring to the ancestors' migration.

Hebrides

Latin

From a Latin name (Hebudes), likely altered by a copying error over the centuries; its earlier origin may be Pre-Celtic or Celtic.

Hecate

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek Hekátē, whose exact origin is debated — possibly linked to an epithet of Apollo meaning "the far-reaching one."

hecatomb

Origin

The noun is a learned borrowing from Latin hecatombē (“great sacrifice of a hundred oxen, hecatomb”), from Ancient Greek ἑκατόμβη (hekatómbē, “great sacrifice of a hundred oxen, hecatomb; any animal sacrifice or large sacrifice”, from ἑκᾰτόν (hekătón, “hundred”) + βοῦς (boûs, “cattle, cow, ox”)). The verb is derived from the noun.

heck

Origin · 1800

A late-19th-century northern English dialect softening of "hell," used to swear without actually swearing.

heckle

Origin

Originally meant "to comb out flax with a heckle," a toothed tool for separating fibers. The word later shifted to mean tearing into a speaker's arguments the same way you'd comb through flax.

hectic

Greek

Originally a medical term for a wasting fever that caused flushed cheeks, from Greek hektikos, "habitual" or "consumptive." Its modern sense of "frantically busy" developed much later, by association with the feverish, agitated feeling such an illness produced.

hector

Origin · 1600

From Hector, the noble Trojan warrior in Homer's Iliad. Ironically, the verb sense came from swaggering London gangs of the 1600s who called themselves "Hectors" after the hero's reputation for boldness — but their bullying behavior twisted the name into an insult.

hedera

Origin

From the genus name Hedera, in turn from Latin hedera (“ivy”).

hedge

Old English

From Old English hecg, meaning a fence or boundary made of bushes. The financial and verbal senses grew out of the idea of "fencing yourself in" — protecting yourself on all sides against risk.

hedge fund

English

From hedge in the financial sense of taking an offsetting position to limit losses, plus fund.

hedgehog

Middle English

From Middle English heyghoge — "hedge" (because it roots around hedgerows) plus "hog" (for its pig-like snout). The military and philosophical uses of "hedgehog" come from the animal's trademark defense: curling into a spiky, impenetrable ball.

hedging

Old English

From hedge, Old English hecg 'a boundary of bushes'; the financial and evasive senses come from the idea of putting a protective fence around oneself.

hedonism

Greek

From Greek hēdonē, meaning 'pleasure', with the suffix -ism.

hedonistic

Greek

From Greek hedone 'pleasure', via hedonism.

Hedwig

Germanic

From Old High German Haduwig, combining "hadu" (fight/battle) and "wig" (battle) — literally "battle-battle," a common style of doubling-up in old Germanic warrior names.

hee

Dutch

Borrowed from Dutch Hee.

heed

Old English

From Old English hēdan, meaning "to take care of" or "guard" — related to old Germanic words for watching over and protecting something.

heedful

Origin

From heed + -ful.

heel

Old English

From Old English hēla, related to "hock." The "bad guy in wrestling" and "contemptible person" senses are much more recent American slang, likely from the idea of someone who is "low," like the bottom part of the foot.