"H" Word Origins

hop

Old English

From Old English hoppian, "to hop, spring, leap, dance," an old Germanic verb shared with Dutch and German equivalents.

hope

Old English

From Old English hopian, "to hope," of uncertain deeper origin but shared with several other Germanic languages.

hopeful

Origin

From hope + the suffix -ful ("full of").

hopefully

German

From hopeful + -ly. The sentence-adverb use ("hopefully, it will work out") took off first in the US and is thought to echo the German word hoffentlich.

hopeless

Origin

From hope + -less ("without").

hopelessly

Origin

From hopeless + -ly.

hopelessness

Origin

From hopeless + -ness.

Hopi

Origin

From the Hopi word hopi, meaning roughly "well-mannered" or "civilized". The name replaced an older, offensive exonym once used by outsiders.

hoping

Origin

From hope + -ing.

hopper

Middle English

From Middle English hoppere, built from hop + -er ("one who hops" or "thing that hops").

hopping

Origin · 1600

A 17th-century spelling variant of an earlier form, ultimately from the same root as "hop".

hoppy

Origin

From hop + -y.

hopscotch

Origin

From hop + an old word meaning "scratch" (referring to the lines scratched or chalked on the ground).

hora

Hebrew

From Hebrew and Yiddish, ultimately from Romanian horă and Turkish hora, tracing back to Greek khoros ("dance") — the same root as "choir" and "chorus".

Horace

Latin

From Latin Horatius, a Roman family name of obscure, possibly Etruscan, origin. Doublet of Horatio.

Horatio

Latin

From Latin Horātius, a Roman gens name of uncertain meaning. Doublet of Horace.

horde

French · 1500

Entered English in the 1500s via French and German from Russian orda ("horde, clan, troop"), tracing back to a Turkic word for a ruler's camp or army. Related to the word "Urdu".

hordeolum

Origin

Borrowed from Latin hordeolus, diminutive from hordeum (“barley”) + -olus, referring to its resemblance to a grain of barley in appearance and size.

hori

Origin

From the Māori name Hōri, itself borrowed from the English name "George".

horizon

Latin

From Greek horizon ("bounding"), from horos ("boundary"), via Latin and French.

horizontal

French

From French horizontal, from horizon (see "horizon").

horizontally

Origin

From horizontal + -ly.

horlicks

Origin

The name of the drink, first sold as "Horlick's Infant and Invalids Food", is derived from the surname of its developers, James (1844–1921) and William Horlick (1846–1936); equivalent to Horlick + -'s (possessive marker). The term later became a euphemism for bollocks (“mess; to make a mess of”).

hormonal

Origin

From hormone + -al.

hormone

Ancient Greek

Coined from Ancient Greek hormon, "setting in motion", the present participle of a verb meaning "to urge on".

horn

Latin

From Old English horn, from a Proto-Germanic root ultimately going back to a very old Indo-European word for "head" or "horn" — the same root that gives Latin cornu and Greek keras. The car/telephone sense comes from the horn-shaped mouthpieces of early sound equipment.

hornblende

Origin

From German Hornblende, from Horn (“horn”) + Blende (see blende).

hornblower

Origin

From horn + blower.

horned

Old English

From Old English hyrned, from horn + the adjective ending -ed.

horner

Middle English

From Middle English horner, from horn + -er.

hornet

Old English

From Old English hyrnetu, from a Germanic root related to "horn" — the insect was named for its horn-like antennae.

horny

Origin

From horn + -y.

horologe

Origin

From Middle English orloge, from Norman oriloge, from Old French orloge, from Latin hōrologium (“sundial”), from Ancient Greek ὡρολόγιον (hōrológion). Cognate with French horloge, Italian orologio, and Spanish reloj. Doublet of Horologium and horologium.

horologer

Origin

From Middle English orloger, from Middle French orlogier; equivalent to horology + -er.

horologium

Origin

See horologium. As a location in Rome, a clipping of Latin Hōrologium Augustī (“Sundial of Augustus”). As a constellation, a clipping of Latin Hōrologium Oscillitorium (“Pendulum Clock”), coined in 1763 by the French astronomer De Lacaille to honor the Dutch astronomer and mathematician Christian Huygens, who had written a major work by that name.

horoscope

Greek

From Greek hōroskopos, literally "watcher of the hour" — from hōra ("time") and skopos ("watcher").

Horowitz

Origin

Named after Hořovice, a town in the Czech Republic that once had a large Jewish population.

horrendous

Latin

From Latin horrendus, "to be dreaded" — a form of the verb horreo, "to shudder or tremble".

horrible

Latin · 1303

First recorded in English around 1303, from Old French horrible/orrible, from Latin horribilis, from horrere ("to tremble") + -ibilis.

horribly

Origin

From horrible + -ly.

horrid

Latin

Borrowed from Latin horridus ("bristly, rough, shaggy"), from horrere ("to bristle, tremble").

horrific

Latin

From Latin horrificus, from horreo ("to be afraid") + -ficus ("making").

horrify

Origin

From horror + -ify, or borrowed from Latin horrificare (cf. French horrifier). 1791, in form horrifying.

horripilating

Origin

From horripilate + -ing.

horripilation

Origin

Borrowed from Late Latin horripilatio, horripilationem.

horror

Latin

From Old French horror, going back to Latin horrere, "to bristle or shudder" — the same idea as hair standing on end from fear.

horry

Origin

From Middle English hory, hoory, from Old English horiġ, horhiġ (“foul, unclean”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurhwīg, from Proto-Germanic *hurhwīgaz (“foul, filthy, soiled, unclean”). Cognate with Middle High German horwig, horwic, horig, horg (“muddy, filthy”).

horse

Old English

From Old English hors, going back through Germanic roots to a very old Indo-European word meaning "to run" — making "horse" a distant relative of "car" and "chariot."