"H" Word Origins

halse

Origin

From Middle English halsen, halchen, from Old English *halsian, *healsian (“to embrace”, literally “to fall upon the neck of”), from heals (“neck”). See above. Cognate with Old Saxon helsjen (“to embrace”), Old High German halsōn (German halsen (“to jibe”)), Icelandic hálsa (“to embrace”).

halsen

Origin

From Middle English halsnen; equivalent to halse (“to salute, beseech”) + -en. Related to Middle High German heilsen (“to predict”); more at halse.

Halsey

Old English

From Old English words for "neck of land" and "island," describing a place's shape.

halt

Old English

From Old English healtian, "to limp" — the sense narrowed over time to mean simply "to stop."

halter

Old English

From Old English hælftre, related to a word meaning "harness."

haltere

Origin

From Ancient Greek ἁλτῆρες (haltêres, “weights held in the hand to give an impetus in leaping”). Note that in the original Greek, there seems to have been no singular for ἁλτῆρες (haltêres), and some authorities maintain that halteres is a plurale tantum, but in English entomological usage, haltere sometimes appears as a back-formation. Sometimes the singular halter is used instead, but this may lead to confusion with other, unrelated meanings of halter.

halve

Origin

From Middle English halven, helven, from Old English hilfan, helfan, *hielfan (“to halve, divide in two”), from Proto-West Germanic *halbijan, from Proto-Germanic *halbijaną (“to halve”), from Proto-Germanic *halbaz (“half”). Cognate with Middle Dutch halven (“to halve”), Middle High German halben, helben (“to halve”). Compare also West Frisian helte (“to halve”), Dutch halveren (“to halve”), German Low German halberen (“to halve”), German halbieren (“to halve”), Danish halvere (“to halve”), Swedish halvera (“to halve”).

ham

Old English

From Old English hamm, originally meaning the back of the knee, later extended to the thigh and then to the cured meat from it.

Hama

Arabic

From Arabic, itself likely from an older Semitic root.

hamada

Arabic

Borrowed from Arabic hamada, a term for a barren rocky plateau.

Haman

Hebrew

Borrowed from Hebrew הָמָן (hāmān).

Hamas

Arabic

An Arabic acronym for "Islamic Resistance Movement," which also spells out a word meaning "zeal" or "enthusiasm."

Hamburg

German

From German Hamburg, a compound linked to an old word for a bend or hollow of land plus "burg" (fortified town).

hamburger

German

Named after Hamburg, Germany, via the term "Hamburg steak," a dish of seasoned ground beef that later gave its name to the bunned sandwich.

Hamid

Arabic

From Arabic hamid, "praiseworthy," from the same root as Muhammad and Ahmad.

Hamill

Irish

From Irish Ó hÁdhmaill, "descendant of Ádhmall," a nickname meaning "active."

Hamilton

Old English

The surname comes from an Old English place name meaning roughly "flat-topped hill," originally a manor in Leicestershire. The many towns and cities called Hamilton around the world were mostly named after settlers or officials who carried the surname, including Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, whose face gives the ten-dollar bill its nickname.

Hamish

Scottish Gaelic

An anglicized spelling of Scottish Gaelic Sheumais, a form of Seumas — itself the Gaelic equivalent of James.

hamlet

Old French

From Old French hamelet, a diminutive of hamel, itself a diminutive of ham ("home, village"), ultimately from the same Germanic root as the English word "home."

Hamm

Old English

From an Old English/Germanic word meaning "enclosure" or "land by a river bend," the same root behind the German city of Hamm.

hammer

Old English

From Old English hamor, from a Proto-Germanic word for a stone-headed tool, related to German Hammer and Dutch hamer.

hammerhead

Origin

A compound of hammer and head, first used for the shark because of its distinctive flattened, T-shaped skull.

hammerkop

Origin

From Afrikaans hamerkop, from hamer (“hammer”) + kop (“head”).

Hammersley

Old English

From an Old English place name combining a personal name with lēah, meaning "woodland clearing" or "glade."

hammersmith

Origin

A compound of hammer and smith, originally an occupational term, later fixed as the name of the London district.

Hammett

German

A diminutive form derived from the Old High German name Hamo.

hammock

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish hamaca, which came from a Taíno word for the swinging beds Columbus first described among Caribbean islanders.

Hammond

Germanic

A patronymic English surname derived from the Germanic given name Hamo, related to a root meaning "home."

hammy

Origin

From hamster + -y.

hamper

Anglo-Norman

From an Anglo-Norman word for a case that held a large cup or goblet, ultimately from a Frankish word for a bowl or cup — the "basket" and "obstruct" senses developed separately over time.

Hampshire

Old English

From Old English Hāmtūnscīr, meaning "the shire of Southampton" — combining the town's old name with the word for a county.

Hampstead

Old English

From Old English words for "homestead" or "place," originally describing the settlement before it grew into a well-known London district.

Hampton

Old English

From Old English hām-tūn, roughly "home settlement" or "farm by the river bend," a very common English place-name element.

Hamptons

Origin

Named collectively after several towns sharing "Hampton" in their names, such as Southampton and East Hampton.

hamster

German

Borrowed from German Hamster, the name of the rodent.

hamstring

Origin

From ham ("back of the knee") + string, originally referring literally to cutting the tendon of a horse or animal to disable it — later extended figuratively.

hamza

Arabic

Borrowed directly from Arabic هَمْزَة (hamza).

han

Middle Chinese

The Korean sense comes from a Korean word borrowed from Middle Chinese meaning "resentment" or "regret." The dynasty/ethnicity sense is a separate Chinese word referring to the historical Han state.

Hana

Origin

From the Hawaiian place name Hāna.

Hanako

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese はなこ (Hanako).

hand

Old English

From Old English hand, from a Proto-Germanic root shared with Dutch hand, German Hand, and Danish hånd.

Handa

Japanese

Borrowed from the Japanese place name 半田 (Handa).

handbag

Origin

A straightforward compound of hand and bag. The verb sense is a playful reference to former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, famous for her handbag and her sharp tongue.

handbagging

Origin

From handbag + -ing. Originally, a metonymic reference to Margaret Thatcher's handbag.

handbags

Origin

From the phrase "handbags at dawn," a joking reference to a fight that's all bluster and no real violence, likened to two people swinging handbags rather than fists.

handball

Origin

A compound of hand and ball, naming the sport by its defining action.

handbill

Origin

From hand + bill (“cutting instrument”).

handbook

Old English

From Old English handbōc, a compound of hand and book, possibly influenced by the similar German word Handbuch.