"H" Word Origins

hothouse

Middle English

From Middle English hothous, simply hot + house.

hotline

Origin

From hot + line.

hotness

Old English

From Old English hātnes, hot + -ness.

hotshot

Origin

From hot + shot.

hotspot

English

A compound of hot, in the figurative sense of intense or active, and spot, a place. The wireless sense extends the older general meaning of an area of concentrated activity.

hottie

Origin

From hot + -ie.

hotting

Origin

From hot + -ing; see hot (“stolen”), as in hot merchandise.

Hou

Chinese

Borrowed from Chinese 侯 (Hóu).

Houdini

French · 1874

From the stage name of magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (1874-1926), who took it in tribute to French magician Robert-Houdin.

Houlihan

Irish

From the Irish surname Houlihan (Ó hUallacháin), applied to this particular roping technique.

hound

Old English · 1500

From Old English hund, "dog." In medieval English hound was the everyday word for dog, while "dog" referred to a bulldog-like breed — the two swapped roles by the 1500s.

hounding

Origin

From hound + -ing.

hour

Latin

From Old French hore, from Latin hora, from Greek hṓra ("time, season"), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root related to "year." A doublet of "year."

hourglass

Origin

From hour + glass.

houri

Origin

From French houri, from Persian حوری (hurî), from Arabic حُورِيّ (ḥūriyy) and Arabic حُورِيَّة (ḥūriyya), adjective and feminine singulative of حُور (ḥūr) from Classical Arabic حُورٌ عِينٌ (ḥūrun ʕīnun, “fair maidens, black-eyed ones”). See أَحْوَر m (ʔaḥwar), حَوْرَاء f (ḥawrāʔ) for the base adjective.

hourly

Origin

From hour + -ly.

house

Old English

From Old English hūs ("dwelling, shelter"), from a Proto-Germanic root possibly meaning "to cover or hide" — related distantly to the word "hose."

houseboat

Origin

From house + boat.

houseboy

Origin

From house + boy.

housegirl

Origin

From house + girl.

houseguest

Origin

From house + guest.

household

Middle English

From Middle English houshold, formed from house + hold.

householder

Origin

From Middle English housholdere, equivalent to household + -er. The Buddhist sense is a semantic loan from Pali gahapati (literally “house-master”).

housekeeper

Origin

From house + keeper.

housekeeping

Origin

From house + keeping.

houseless

Origin

From Middle English housles, from Old English *hūslēas, from Proto-West Germanic *hūslaus, from Proto-Germanic *hūsalausaz, equivalent to house + -less. Cognate with West Frisian húsleas (“houseless”), Dutch huisloos (“houseless”), German hauslos (“houseless”), Danish husløs (“houseless”), Swedish huslös (“houseless”), Icelandic húslaus (“houseless”).

housemade

Origin

From house + made.

housemaid

Origin

From house + maid.

houseman

Origin

From house + man.

houser

Origin

From Middle English housere, equivalent to house + -er.

housewarming

Origin

From house + warming.

housewife

Middle English

From Middle English houswyf, house + wife. It is a doublet of "hussy" — the two words split apart over time as "hussy" took on a negative meaning.

housework

Origin

From house + work.

housing

Middle English

From Middle English housinge, from housen ("to shelter"), house + -ing.

hove

Origin

An old past-tense form of "heave," now surviving mainly in nautical phrases like "hove into view" and "hove to."

hovel

Old English

From Middle English hovel, a diminutive related to Old English hof ("dwelling, court"), the same root behind "hover."

hover

Middle English

From Middle English hoveren, probably from hoven ("to hover, soar") plus a frequentative ending, ultimately tied to the verb "heave."

hovercraft

Origin

From hover + -craft; originally a trademark of the British company Saunders-Roe.

hovering

Origin

From hover + -ing.

how

Old English

From Old English hū, from a Proto-Germanic root shared with "who" and "what" — the /hw/ sound simplified to /h/ earlier in "how" than in "who" or "which."

howdy

Origin

A shortened form of "how-d'ye-do," itself from "how do you do."

Howe

Old English

From Middle English hoʒe ("steep ridge"), a variant of Old English hōh, with likely influence from Old Norse haugr ("hill").

however

Middle English

From Middle English how + ever — literally "how ever," which hardened over time into a single contrast word.

Howie

Origin

From Howard plus the diminutive suffix -ie.

howitzer

Origin

Borrowed from Dutch houwitser, from German Haubitze, from Middle High German haufniz, from Czech houfnice, which was derived from houf (“flock, crowd”) + -nice. The Czech noun houf comes from Middle High German hufe (“heap”), from Old High German hūfo.

howl

Old English

From Old English roots meaning "to howl," almost certainly an imitation of the sound itself — much like similar words in German (heulen) and Dutch (huilen).

howlarious

Origin

Blend of howl + hilarious.

howler

Origin

From howl + -er. Some senses are derivatives of the intensifier "howling", as in "howling wilderness", (Deuteronomy 32:10)