"H" Word Origins

heller

German

Borrowed from German Heller, itself named after the city of Hall (Schwäbisch Hall), where the coin was minted.

hellfire

Old English

From Old English hellefyr, literally "hell" + "fire."

hellhole

Origin · 1800

A straightforward compound of "hell" and "hole," first recorded in the 1800s.

hellion

Origin

An alteration, under the influence of hell, of northern English/Scottish dialectal hallion (“scamp, worthless fellow”), of unknown origin.

hellish

Origin

From "hell" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ish."

hellman

Origin

A straightforward compound of "hell" and "man".

hello

Origin · 1800

First recorded in the early 1800s as a variant of "hollo"; often credited to Thomas Edison as the standard telephone greeting, though the word predates the telephone.

hellstrip

Origin

From hell + strip. Coined by American horticulturalist and author Lauren Springer Ogden in the 1990s. Compare devil strip.

helluo

Origin

Borrowed from Latin helluo (“glutton, squanderer”).

helluv

Origin

From "hell of (a)", like hella (originally Northern California slang). See also Wikipedia:Hella (word).

helluva

Origin

A written spelling of the relaxed pronunciation of "hell of a".

helm

Old English

From Old English helma, "tiller of a ship," related to a Germanic word for a handle.

Helmand

Persian

From an old Iranian root meaning roughly "with dams", via Persian and Pashto.

helmer

Origin

From "helm" (to steer or direct) plus the agent suffix "-er".

helmet

Old French

From Old French helmet, a diminutive of helme ("helm"), itself borrowed from a Germanic word.

helmsman

Origin

From "helm" (a ship's steering wheel) plus "man."

helo

Origin

A clipped, informal form of "helicopter."

Heloise

French

From medieval French Héloïse, historically linked to the doublet name Eloise.

helot

Origin

From Latin Hīlōta, from Ancient Greek Εἵλωτες (Heílōtes), possibly from ἁλίσκομαι (halískomai, “to be captured, to be made prisoner”) or from Ἕλος (Hélos, “Elos”), a Laconian town.

help

Old English

From Old English help, going back to a Germanic root meaning "to help."

helper

Origin

From "help" plus the agent suffix "-er."

helpful

Origin

From "help" plus the suffix "-ful," meaning "full of."

helping

Origin

From "help" plus the "-ing" suffix.

helpless

Old English

From Old English helpleas, meaning literally "without help" — "help" plus the suffix "-less."

helplessly

Origin

From "helpless" plus the adverb-forming suffix "-ly."

helplessness

Origin

From "helpless" plus the noun suffix "-ness."

Helsinki

Origin

Borrowed directly from the Finnish name Helsinki.

helve

Origin

From Middle English helfe, helve; from Old English hielfe, from Proto-Germanic *halbiją. Probably cognate to English half, although Etymonline claims relation from halter and helm.

hem

Origin

An imitative word — it simply mimics the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Hemant

Origin

Transliteration of Hindi हेमंत (hemant).

hematoma

Greek

From Greek haima ("blood") plus the medical suffix -oma, which usually marks a tumor or growth — hematoma is one of the rare exceptions where -oma doesn't mean cancer.

hemeral

Origin

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἡμέρα (hēméra, “day”).

hemicrania

Origin

From Late Latin hemicrania (“pain in one half of the head”), from Ancient Greek ἡμικρᾱνίᾰ (hēmikrāníă), from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “hemi-, half”) + κρανίον (kraníon, “skull”) (from whence also cranium). Cognate to megrim and migraine, which also derive from the Latin.

Hemingway

Origin

Named after Ernest Hemingway.

hemisphere

Greek

From Greek hemisphairion, combining hemi- ("half") and sphaira ("sphere").

hemlock

Old English

From Old English hemlic or hymlice, of uncertain deeper origin — the poisonous plant and the unrelated hemlock tree just happen to share the same English name.

hemoglobin

Greek

Built from hematin (from Greek haima, "blood") plus globulin, a type of protein — describing a protein built around a blood-pigment core.

hemophiliac

Origin

From hemo- + -philiac.

hemorrhage

Greek

From Greek haimorrhagia, combining haima ("blood") and rhegnynai ("to burst") — literally a violent bursting of blood.

hemorrhagic

Origin

Formed from hemorrhage plus the adjective-forming suffix -ic.

hemorrhea

Origin

From hemo- + -rrhea, from Ancient Greek: αἷμα (haîma, “blood”) in conjunction with ῥοία (rhoía, “flow”).

hemorrhoid

Greek

From Greek haimorrhoos ("flowing with blood"), rooted in haima ("blood") and rheo ("to flow").

hemovore

Origin

From hemo- + -vore.

hemp

Old English

From Old English henep, tracing back to Proto-Germanic hanapiz — the same root that eventually gave English the word "canvas".

hen

Old English

From Old English henn, related to Germanic words for "hen" that ultimately trace to an old root meaning "to sing" — the same root behind the word for a male chicken, "cock".

hence

Old English

From Middle English hennes, ultimately from Old English heonan meaning "from here" — related to the word "here".

henceforth

Middle English

From Middle English hennes forth, combining hence ("from here") with forth ("forward") — literally "forward from here".

henceforward

Origin

From Middle English hennes forward, equivalent to hence + forward. Compare Middle English hens-forthward, hennes forthward (“henceforward”).