"H" Word Origins

holler

Origin

An American variant of "holla" or "hollo," old shouts used to draw attention.

Holli

Origin

A rare spelling variant of Holly.

Holliday

Origin

An English surname from the noun holiday, comparable to the surname Christmas.

Hollingsworth

Origin

Variant of Hollingworth.

Hollis

Origin

An English topographical surname from the noun holly.

Hollister

Old French

From Hollier, ultimately from Old French holier ("adulterer, lecher"), reapplied to a female brothel-keeper.

hollo

Origin

See halloo, and compare holla.

hollow

Old English

From Old English holh, "a hollow place," ultimately going back to a very old Germanic root also connected to the word "hole."

Holloway

Old English

From Old English words meaning "hollow" and "way" — literally a "hollow way," describing a track worn down over time.

holly

Old English

From Old English holen/holeġn, an old Germanic word for the same prickly evergreen plant.

hollyhock

Origin

From Middle English holihocke, holyhokke, holihoc, from holi (“holy”) + hocke, hokke, hoc (“mallow”) (from Old English hoc (“marsh mallow”). The modern hollyhock was probably unknown in England until the 15th century, so usage before then no doubt referred to some other mallow. Apparently so called for being brought from the Holy Land; compare an old name for it in Medieval Latin cauli Sancti Cuthberti (“St. Cuthbert's cole”).

Hollywood

Origin

Named by real-estate developer H. J. Whitley after the holly bushes he planned to plant there; the word later came to stand for the whole US film industry.

hollywoodland

Origin

From the original word on the Hollywood Sign (from 1923 until 1949). By surface analysis, holly + wood + land.

holm

Old English

From Old English holm ("sea, islet") and Old Norse holmr ("islet"), both from an ancient Germanic word for raised or rising ground.

Holmes

Old English

The friendly-address sense grew out of Chicano and West Coast slang; the detective sense nods to the fictional character Sherlock Holmes, whose surname comes from an old English word for a small island or river meadow.

holocaust

Greek

From Greek holókaustos, "wholly burnt," originally referring to a sacrifice completely consumed by fire before it became the standard term for the Nazi genocide.

holodeck

Origin

Coined for the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, blending holo- with deck.

hologram

Greek · 1948

Coined in 1948 by physicist Dennis Gabor from Greek holos ("whole") and gramma ("something written"); he later won the Nobel Prize for developing holography.

holograph

Origin

From holo- + -graph.

holographic

Origin

Built from holo- + -graph + -ic, following the pattern of "hologram."

holography

Origin

From holograph + -y.

holster

Germanic

From Dutch holster, ultimately from an old Germanic root meaning "covering" or "case."

holt

Old English

From Old English holt, "wood, forest," an old Germanic word for timber or woodland — the same root survives in German Holz ("wood").

holy

Old English

From Old English hālig, related to hāl ("whole, healthy") — the same root that gives us the word "whole."

holy grail

Old French

Grail comes from Old French graal, meaning a dish or bowl, used in medieval romance for the sacred vessel sought by King Arthur's knights.

Hom

Origin

From Taishanese, a romanization of the surname 譚/谭.

homage

Latin

From Old French homage, ultimately from Latin homo ("man") — originally the formal pledge of loyalty a vassal made to his lord.

hombre

Spanish

Borrowed directly from Spanish hombre, meaning "man."

homburg

Origin

From the town of Bad Homburg, Germany, where it was first worn.

home

Old English

From Old English hām, going back to a very old Indo-European root meaning "village" or "dwelling place."

homeboy

Latin

US slang blending "hometown" and "boy," originally used by people from the same town living away from it, later widely adopted in African American and Latino communities.

homecomer

Origin

From home + comer.

homecoming

Origin

From Middle English hom-comyng, home komyng, home-cumyng, home-commynge, equivalent to home + coming. Probably an alteration of earlier Middle English hom-come, homkome, hame-come, ham-cume, from Old English hāmcyme (“homecoming; return”).

homegirl

Origin

Formed from home + girl, the female counterpart to homeboy.

homegrown

Origin

From home + grown.

homeland

Origin

From home + land.

homeless

Old English

From Old English hāmlēas, literally "home-less," built from home plus the suffix -less.

homelessness

Origin

From homeless plus the noun-forming suffix -ness.

homeliness

Origin

From Middle English homlynesse, homelynesse, hamelynes, equivalent to homely + -ness.

homeling

Origin

From home + -ling.

homely

Old English

From Old English hāmlīċ, "of the home, domestic," built from home plus the adjective suffix -ly.

homemade

Origin

From home + made.

homemaker

Origin

From home + maker.

homeopathic

Latin

Built from homeo- ("similar") plus -pathic ("relating to disease/treatment") — the core idea of homeopathy being that "like cures like."

homeostasis

Greek

From Greek homoios meaning 'similar' and stasis meaning 'standing still'.

homeowner

Origin

From home + owner.

homer

Hebrew

From Hebrew חומר / חֹמֶר (khómer, “clay, heap, large unit of volume”).

homeroom

Origin

From home + room.