"H" Word Origins

honeymooner

Origin

From honeymoon + -er.

honeypie

Origin

From honey + pie.

honeypot

Origin

From Middle English hwny pott; equivalent to honey + pot.

honeysuckle

Old English

From Old English huniġsūce, "honey" + "suck", referring to the sweet nectar that can be sucked from the flowers.

hong

Cantonese

From Cantonese hong4, meaning "trade" or "business".

honk

Origin

Onomatopoeic, imitating the sound itself.

honker

Origin

From honk + -er.

honky

Origin

Likely derived from "hunky", an earlier slang term for Central and Eastern European immigrant laborers, itself from "Hungarian".

Honnold

German

A variant of the German surname Honold.

Honolulu

Origin

From Hawaiian hono ("bay, harbor") + lulu ("shelter"), roughly meaning "sheltered harbor".

honor

Latin

From Old French honor, from Latin honor.

honora

Origin

Medieval variant of Honoria, feminine form of Honorius.

honorable

Latin

From Old French honorable, from Latin honorabilis, from honorare ("to honor").

honorary

Latin

From honor + -ary, modeled on French honoraire, from Latin honorarius.

honorific

Origin

From honor + -ific.

honourable

Latin

From Old French honorable, from Latin honōrābilis, built on honōrō, "to honour."

hoo

Old English

The pronoun sense traces back to an Old English word for "she"; the "peninsula" sense comes from an unrelated Old English word for a spur of raised land, seen today in English place names like the Hoo Peninsula.

hoobae

Origin

Borrowed from Korean 후배(後輩) (hubae, “junior”). Doublet of kohai.

hooch

Origin

Shortened from "hoochinoo," the name of a strong liquor once made by the Hoochinoo people of Alaska; the name traces back to Tlingit words for the group and for "grizzly bear."

hoochie

Origin

Believed to come from "hootchy-kootchy," the name of an old sexually suggestive stage dance.

hood

Old English

From Old English hōd, related to German Hut ("hat") — all ultimately from a root meaning "to cover."

hooded

Origin

From hood + -ed.

hoodie

Origin

From hood plus the informal suffix -ie, as in other casual nouns for people or things (compare "townie").

hoodlum

German · 1866

First recorded in an 1866 San Francisco newspaper describing a "Hoodlum Gang" of young thieves; the exact origin is debated, with theories ranging from German dialect words for "ragamuffin" to a garbled gang call.

hoodoo

Origin

Believed to be an altered form of "voodoo."

hoodwink

Origin

The verb is derived from hood (“head covering attached to a larger garment such as a jacket or cloak”) + wink (“to close one’s eyes”). (< C16 'to blindfold'). The noun is derived from the verb.

hooey

Origin

Origin uncertain, possibly linked to "phooey" or used as a softened stand-in for a cruder word.

hoof

Old English

From Old English hōf, an ancient Germanic word for the same body part, related to similar words across Indo-European languages for "hoof" or "claw."

hoofed

Origin

From Middle English hoved, hovyde, from Old English ġehōfod (“hoofed, hooved”), equivalent to hoof + -ed.

hook

Old English

From Old English hōc, meaning "angle" or "hook," from an ancient Germanic root for a bent peg or claw.

hookah

Arabic

From Hindustani huqqā, ultimately from Arabic ḥuqqa, meaning "pot" or "jar."

hooked

Origin

From hook + -ed.

hooker

Origin

Unknown. The "prostitute" sense is the subject of a folk etymology connecting it to General Hooker of the American Civil War, but the earliest known use dates to 1835, decades before the war. Less implausibly, it has also been connected to a coastal feature called a hook (“A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey, Red Hook in New York”) in the ports of New York and Baltimore. Carefully learned inference is not conclusive. See this essay, pp 105ff.

hookup

Origin

Formed as a noun from the phrasal verb "hook up."

hooky

Dutch · 1848

First recorded in 1848 New York; likely from Dutch hoekje, meaning "corner" or "hiding spot," tied to hide-and-seek games.

hool

Origin

Clipping of hool(igan).

hoolie

Origin

From hool(igan) + -ie (diminutive suffix).

hooligan

Irish · 1890

Probably derived from the Irish surname Houlihan, first used this way in 1890s London.

hooliganism

Origin

Formed from hooligan plus the suffix -ism.

hoon

Origin · 1938

Origin uncertain; first appeared in print in the 1938 Australian novel Capricornia as a general insult.

hoop

Old English

From Old English hōp, meaning a curved or circular object, related to an old Germanic root for "bend."

hooper

Origin

From hoop plus the agent suffix -er, originally naming a craftsman who fitted hoops onto barrels.

hoopla

French · 1877

From the French exclamation houp-là, roughly "upsy-daisy," first used in English around 1877.

hooray

Germanic · 1600

Origin unclear, first recorded in the late 1600s; possibly related to "hurrah" or similar exclamations across Germanic languages.

hoot

Middle English

From Middle English houten, likely of Scandinavian origin, related to old words meaning "to shout in contempt."

hootenanny

Origin

Unknown; potentially Scottish. Use is tied to the Appalachian culture in the US.

Hoover

Origin

From the Hoover brand name, one of the earliest popular vacuum cleaner makers, later generalized into everyday British usage for any vacuum cleaner.

hooverize

Origin

From Hoover + -ize, named after Herbert Hoover, who, as head of the Food and Drug Administration during World War I, encouraged Americans to ration food. Apparently coined in the poem reproduced below.