"H" Word Origins

heer

Dutch

Borrowed from Dutch heer.

Hef

Origin

Clipping of Hefner.

Heffernan

Irish

Anglicized form of Irish Ó hIfearnáin (“descendant of Ifearnán”), a personal name derived from a diminutive form of ifreannach (“demon”), from ifreann (“hell”).

heft

Origin

The noun is derived from Late Middle English heft (“heaviness; something heavy, a weight”), from heven (“to lift, raise”) + -th (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc., forming nouns), by analogy with the development of weft from weven (modern English weave), etc. (also compare words like cleft from cleave, and theft from thieve, where the development occurred in Old English or earlier languages). The English word is analysable as heave + -t (suffix forming nouns from verbs). The verb is probably derived from the noun.

hefty

Origin · 1800

From "heft" (weight, heaviness) plus the adjective ending "-y", dating to the 1800s.

Hegel

German

From German Hegel.

hegemony

Greek

From Greek hēgemonia, 'leadership' or 'authority', from hēgemōn, a leader.

hegumen

Origin

Ultimately from Ancient Greek ἡγούμενος (hēgoúmenos, “leader”).

heh

Origin

An onomatopoeic spelling imitating a soft, understated laugh.

hehe

Middle English

From Middle English hehe, from Old English he he.

HEIC

English

An initialism of High Efficiency Image Container, the file extension used for images stored in the HEIF format.

Heidelberg

German

From German Heidelberg, from an uncertain word and Berg (“mountain”).

Heidi

English

From Swiss German Heidi, a pet form of Adelheid, equivalent of English Adelaide and Alice. The name became internationally popular due to the children's book Heidi (1880).

heifer

Old English

From Old English hēahfore, a word of disputed origin found only in English, with no clear match in other Germanic languages.

height

Old English

From Old English hīehþu, built from "high" plus an old noun-forming ending — literally "high-ness."

heighten

Origin

Formed from "height" plus the verb-making ending "-en," the same pattern seen in "sharpen" or "widen."

heil

German

Borrowed from German heil ("hail, whole, healthy"), the same ancient root that gives English "whole," "hail," and "hale."

Heimlich

Origin · 1970

Named after American physician Henry Heimlich, who devised the technique in the 1970s.

Hein

German

From German, Dutch, Low German, Danish, and Jewish surname, all from the first element of the Germanic name Heinrich.

Heineken

German

Borrowed from German Heineken.

heinie

Origin

From a corruption of *hindie, for *behindie (“behind, rear end, hindward parts”), equivalent to hind + -ie. Perhaps influenced in some way by Heinie (“a German”).

heinous

Old French

From Old French haïneus, "hateful," itself from haïr, "to hate" — tracing back to a Frankish word for hatred.

Heinrich

German

Borrowed from German Heinrich.

Heinz

Origin

Both slang senses borrow the number 57 from the H. J. Heinz Company's famous "57 Varieties" slogan.

heir

Latin

From Anglo-Norman heir, from Latin hērēs, meaning the same thing. The silent "h" survives from this French-Latin route into English.

heiress

French

Formed by adding the feminine ending "-ess" (from French, ultimately Greek) to "heir."

heirloom

Middle English

From Middle English heirlome — literally a "tool" (loom) that gets passed on to one's heirs.

Heisenberg

German

From German Heisenberg.

heiskell

Origin

Variant of Haskell.

heist

Origin

Probably a dialect pronunciation of "hoist" — originally underworld slang for stealing or shoplifting.

Hel

Old Norse

From Old Norse hel; the same root that later gave English "hell."

Helen

Ancient Greek

From French Hélène, from Latin Helena, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē). Doublet of Elaine.

Helena

Latin

A Latin form of the Greek name Helen, made famous by Saint Helena, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine.

Helene

French

From French Hélène, ultimately from the same Greek root as Helen and Helena.

Helga

Old Norse

From Old Norse Helga, meaning "holy" or "blessed" — the feminine form of Helgi.

helicopter

French

From French hélicoptère, built from Greek helix ("spiral") and pteron ("wing").

Helios

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek helios, meaning "sun".

helipad

Origin

A blend of "heli-" (from helicopter) and "pad."

helium

Greek

From Greek helios ("sun"), because the element was first detected in sunlight before it was found on Earth.

helix

Greek

From Greek helix, meaning "something twisted or spiral."

hell

Old English

From Old English hell, going back to a Germanic root meaning "to cover" — the underworld imagined as a hidden, covered-over place.

hella

Origin

Slang that started in Northern California, originally a shortening of "a hell of a" (lot).

hellas

Origin

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Ἑλλάς (Hellás, “Greece”). Doublet of Ellada.

hellborn

Origin

From hell + born.

hellcat

Origin

A compound of "hell" and "cat," originally used of a supposedly demonic or witch-like cat, later of a fiery-tempered person.

Helle

Ancient Greek

From the Ancient Greek name Helle.

hellene

Origin

From Ἕλληνες (Héllēnes, “Greeks”), most probably a derivation of Ἑλλοί (Helloí) or Σελλοί (Selloí), the Greek inhabitants of the area around the sanctuary of Dodona (Δωδώνη (Dōdṓnē)). In Greek mythology Ἕλλην (Héllēn), whom the Ἕλληνες (Héllēnes, “Greeks”) were named after, was the son of Δευκαλίων (Deukalíōn) and Πύρρα (Púrrha).

hellenic

Origin

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνικός (Hellēnikós, “of or pertaining to Greece or Greeks”), from Ancient Greek Ἑλλάς (Hellás, “Greece”). By surface analysis, Hellen + -ic. First attested in c. 1640.