head,intellect, person, a favourite word with Sir T. Browne, ‘Every Age has its Lucian, whereof common Heads must not hear’, Rel. Med. (ed. Greenhill, 36).
headless hood.In Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 96, we find: ‘So vainely t’aduance thy headless hood.’ Herehood, i.e. state, condition, is the usual suffix-hood, used as if it could be detached. ‘Explained in the Globe ed., followed by recent Dicts., as =heedlesshood’, but Spenser elsewhere always distinguishes betweenheadlessandheedless, NED.
heal,to cover; ‘Heal, to cover, to heal a house’, ‘to heal the fire’, ‘to heal a person in bed’, Ray, S. and E. Country Words (1674). See EDD. (s.v. Heal, vb.2). ME.helen, to hide, conceal (Chaucer, C. T.B.2279). OE.helian, to hide. Seeunhele.
heale,health. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (ed. Arber, 46); well-being, prosperity, Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte, 768. In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. Heal, sb.1). ME.hele, health, recovery, safety (Wars Alex., see Gloss. Index). OE.hǣlo.
hear ill,to be ill spoken of. B. Jonson, Catiline, iv. 6 (end); Dedication of Volpone. A Greek idiom, cp. κακῶς ἀκούειν, to be ill spoken of.
heardgroom, herdgroom,a shepherd-lad. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 35. Copied from Chaucer, Hous of Fame, 1225 (‘Thise litel herdegromes’).
hearse,a structure of wood used in noble funerals, decorated with banners, heraldic devices, and lighted candles, on which it was customary for friends to pin short poems or epitaphs; ‘Underneath this sable hearse’, B. Jonson, Epit. on the Countess of Pembroke; Middleton, Women beware, iii. 2 (Livia); a coffin on a bier, Richard III, i. 2. 2. See Dict.
heart at grass:phr.to take heart at grasse; ‘Rise, therefore, Euphues, and take heart at grasse, younger thou shalt never bee, plucke up thy stomacke’, Lyly, Euphues (Nares); Tarlton’s Newes out of Purgatorie, 24. See Nares (s.v. Heart of grace).
heart of grace:phr.to take heart of grace; ‘His absence gave him so much heart of grace’, Harington, Ariosto, xxii. 37; ‘Take heart of grace, man’, Ordinary (Nares). See Nares (s.v. Grace, 3).
heart-breaker,a lovelock, a curl; jocosely. Butler, Hudibras, pt. i, c. 1, 253.
heautarit,quicksilver. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Arab.ʿuṭârid, the planet Mercury; also, quicksilver (Steingass).
heave a bough,rob a booth or shop. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); ‘To heve a bough, to robbe or rifle a boeweth [booth]’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84.
heave and ho,a cry of sailors in heaving the anchor, &c.; hence, with might and main; ‘With heaue and hoaw on Bacchus name they shout’, Phaer, Aeneid vii, 389; ‘Heue and how’, Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 252.
heben,ebony; ‘Hebene, Heben or Ebony, the black and hard wood of a certain tree growing in Aethiopia and the East Indies’, Cotgrave;heben wood, Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 37. L.hebenus, Gk. ἔβενος, the ebony tree; cp. Heb.hobnîm, billets of ebony (Ezek. xxvii. 15).
hebenon,name given to some substance having a poisonous juice, Hamlet, i. 5. 62;hebon, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iii. 4 (Barabas). Cp. Gower, C. A. iv. 3017, ‘Bordes Of hebenus that slepi Tree’, borrowed from Ovid, Metam. xi. 610 ff., ‘Torus est ebeno sublimis . . . Quo cubat ipse deus membris languore solutis.’
hecco,the woodpecker; ‘The laughing hecco’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 80; ‘The sharp-neb’d hecco’, The Owl, 206. Cp. Glouc.heckwall, see EDD. (s.v. Hickwall).
heckfer,a heifer. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, xi. 811; ‘Heckfare,bucula’, Levins, Manip. ME.hekfere, ‘juvenca’ (Prompt.); ‘buccula, juvenca’ (Voc. 758. 3). Formerly in prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia, but now obsolete, see EDD. (s.v. Heifer).
heedling,headlong. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 58; ‘To tumble a man heedlinge down the hyll’, Cranmer, Pref. to Bible; precipitately, ‘His armie flying headling back againe’, Knolles, Hist. Turks (ed. 1621, 170).
heft,weight. Mirror for Mag., Salisbury, st. 15. Hence, stress, need,emergency; ‘Forsooke each other at the greatest heft’, Ferrex, st. 5. In common prov. use in the midland and southern counties: it means weight, esp. the weight of a thing as ascertained by lifting it in the hand, see EDD. (s.v. Heft, sb.11).
heggue,a hag, malicious female sprite; ‘Heggues that are seen in the feldes by night like Fierbrandes’, Arber, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 23; ‘The ayery heggs’, Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 31.
heir,to be heir to, to inherit. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 714; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 161.
hell,the ‘den’ for prisoners in the games of Barley-break and Prison-bars; ‘Here’s the last couple in hell’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Elder Loveless). Seebarley-break.
hell-waine,a phantom wagon, seen in the sky at night. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); R. Scott, Disc. Witchcraft, vii. 15 (ed. 1886, 122). In the Netherlands the Great Bear is calledHellewagen, see Grimm, Teut. Myth. 802.
helm,the helmet or head of a still. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle).
helm,a handle. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 312. See Dict.
helmster,the tiller of a helm. A Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 571.
helo(e, healo,bashful; ‘Il est né tout coiffé, hee is verie maidenlie, shamfaced, heloe’, Cotgrave (ed. 1611); ‘Honteux, shamefast, bashful, helo, modest’, id.; ‘Heloeorhelaw, bashful, a word of common use’, Ray, North Country Words, 25;hala, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iii. 1 (Lolpool). In common prov. use in the north country as far south as Cheshire and Derbysh. (EDD.).
helops,a savoury sea-fish. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 13. L.helops,ellops; Gk. ἔλλοψ. Seeellops.
hempstring,a worthless fellow; a term of reproach, with reference to a halter. Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 2 (Psiteria); ‘A perfect young hemp-string’, Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, v. 1 (Vaumont). In Scotland (Forfarsh.) a hangman’s halter is called a hempstring (EDD.).
†hemule, hemuse,a roebuck in its third year.Hemule, Book of St. Albans, fol. E4, back;hemuse, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 45, p. 143. See NED.
hench-boy,a page. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Mis. T.); Randolph, Muses’ Looking Glass, i. 4 (Mrs. Flowerdew);hinch-boy, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Song). Cp.henchman, a page, Mids. Nt. D. ii. 1. 121; ‘A henchman or henchboy,page d’honneur, qui marche devant quelque Seigneur de grand authorité(Sherwood).’ See Prompt. EETS. (note, no. 999).
hend,to hold, grasp. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 27; to cast, hurl, Mirror for Mag., Brennus, st. 83. OE.ge-hendan, to hold in the hand.
hent,to seize, lay hold of. Winter’s Tale, iv. 2. 133; pt. t.hent, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 1; pp.hent, occupied, Meas. for Measure, iv. 6. 14; caught, taken, Peele, Tale of Troy, ed. Dyce, p. 553. ME.hente, to seize (Chaucer, C. T.A.3347); OE.hentan.
her,their. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 160; Sept., 39. ME.here(her) of them, their (Chaucer); OE.hira; see Dict. M. and S.
herber,a green plot, flower-garden. Lusty Juventus, Song after Prologue, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 46. ME.herber, a garden (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1705); an arbour (Leg. G. W. 203). See Dict. (s.v. Arbour).
herberow,a lodging, shelter. Morte Arthur, leaf 77. 11; bk. iv, c. 25;herborowe, v., to lodge, provide shelter for, id., lf. 90, back, 19; bk. v, c. 11. ME.herberwe, a lodging, shelter; an inn; a harbour (Chaucer). Icel.herbergi, lit. army-shelter. Seeharborough.
herden,made of hards or fibres of flax. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 118. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Harden, sb.).
heriot;seeharriot.
herneshaw,a young heron. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 9; ‘Heronceau, an hernshawe’, Palsgrave;hernesewe, Golding, Metam. xiv. 580;heronsew, Disobedient Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 282. For numerous prov. pronunciations of the word, which is in common use from the north country to Kent, see EDD. (s.v. Heronsew). ME.heronsewe(Chaucer, C. T.F.68); Anglo-F.herouncel(Rough List).
herring-bones,stitches arranged in a zigzag pattern. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 20.
hersall,rehearsal. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 18.
herse,a harrow triangular in form; ‘The archers ther (at the battle of Creçy) stode in maner of a herse’ (i.e. drawn up in a triangular formation), Berners, tr. of Froissart, c. cxxx. F.herce, a harrow (Cotgr.); Ital.erpice; L.hirpex(irpex). See Dict. (s.v. Hearse).
hery, herry,to praise, honour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 13; Shep. Kal., Feb., 62; Nov., 10;herried, pret., Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 347. ME.herie, to praise (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1672); OE.herian.
Hesperides,the garden of the Hesperides; ‘Trees in the Hesperides’, L. L. L. iv. 3. 341; ‘the plot Hesperides’, Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 56; p. 90, col. 1; ‘The garden called Hesperides’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1168); scene 9. 82 (W.); p. 167, col. 2 (D.).
hew,a hewing, hacking, slaughter. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 49.
hewte,a copse. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 29, p. 75; ‘Small groues or hewts’, id., c. 31; p. 81; Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, ii. 731. OE.hiewet, a hewing (Gregory’s Past, xxxvi); cp.copse, from OF.coper, to cut.
hey;seehay.
heydeguyes;seehay-de-guy.
heyward,an officer of a township who had charge of hedges and enclosures. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 11, p. 41. In prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.). ME.heyward, ‘agellarius’ (Prompt.). Seehay(hedge).
hiccius doctius,a similar word to ‘hocus-pocus’, used in imitation of Latin by conjurers who performed tricks; hence, a conjurer’s trick, a cheat. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 580.
hidder and shidder,male and female animals. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 211.Hidder=he-der, he ‘deer’, i.e. male animal;shidder=she-der, she ‘deer’, i.e. female animal. In Yorks. and Lincoln the sheep-farmers speak of a flock of ‘he-ders’ and ‘she-ders’, see EDD. (s.v. He, 10 (6)).
high-copt,high-topped. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163. Seecoppe.
high-lone,entirely alone; said of a child learning to walk. Romeo, i. 3. 36 (1 quarto); Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, iv. 2. 9. [‘The Mares . . . were scarce able to go high-lone’, G. Washington, Diary, March 13, 1760 (NED.).]
highmen,loaded dice that produced high throws. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 1 (Fitsgrave); ‘Two bayle of false dyce,videlicet, high men and loe men’, London Prodigal, i. 1. 218.
hight,to promise; ‘And vowes men shal him hight’, Phaer, Aeneid, i. 290. In Chaucer we findhighte, pt. t. ofhote, to promise (Tr. and Cr. v. 1636; C. T.E.496); OE.hēht(hēt), pt. t. ofhātanto promise, to bid, command. Seehot(hote).
hight,pr.andpt. t., is or was called; ‘I hight’, I am named, Peele, Araynement of Paris, i. 1 (Venus); was called, was named, ‘She Queene of Faeries hight’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 14; ‘The citie of the great king hight it well.’ This is a Chaucerian spelling and usage, the form being due to ME.hight(promised, commanded), see above. In Chaucer we findhight, ‘is called’, and ‘was called’ (Leg. G. W. 417, and 725). But we also find the regular formhattefor both pres. and pt. t. (Tr. and Cr. iii. 797; H. Fame, 1303). OE.hātte, is or was called, pr. and pt. t. ofhātan. This is the only trace of the old passive voice preserved in English, cp. Goth.haitada, I am called.
higre,the ‘bore’ in a river. Drayton, Pol. vii. 10; xxviii. 482. Med. L.Higrain William of Malmesbury, De Pontific.: ‘Anglis dictus quidam quotidianus aquarum Sabrinae fluvii furor quem vel voraginem vel vertiginem undarum dicam nescio’ (Ducange). See EDD. (s.v. Eagre).
hild,to heel over, to lean over; ‘I hylde, I leane on the one syde, as a bote or shyp’, Palsgrave. An E. Anglian form, see EDD. (s.v. Heald, vb.11). ME.hilde, to incline;heldyn, ‘inclino’ (Prompt.). OE.hieldan(late WS.hyldan, Kentishheldan), to incline. See NED. (s.v. Hield).
hilding,a good-for-nothing person of either sex. Applied to a man, All’s Well, iii. 6. 4; applied to a woman; a jade, a baggage, Romeo, iii. 5. 169; Dryden, Spanish Fryar, ii. 3; a worthless horse, Holland’s Livy, xxi. 40, p. 415. See Nares.
hill,to cover; to cover from sight, to hide. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iv, ch. 21, st. 27;hild, pp. Phaer, tr. Aeneid, ii. 472. In prov. use in various parts of England from the north to Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Hill, vb.2). ME.hyllyn, ‘operio’ (Prompt.);hile(Wyclif, Mark 14. 65). Icel.hylja, to cover.
himp,to hobble, to limp; ‘Lame of one leg, and himping’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 35; ‘Hymping on the one legge’, id., Alexander, § 57. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). Cp. Du. dial.himp-, inhimphamp, ‘een hinkend persoon’ (Boekenoogen).
hinch-boy;seehench-boy.
hine,a farm-labourer, a ‘hind’. Phaer, tr. Aeneid, vii. 504; Waller, Suckling’s Verses, 33. This form is in prov. use in Lakeland, Yorks. and in Devon and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Hind, sb.1). ME.hyne(Wyclif, John x. 12). OE.hī(w)na man, a man of the household, of the servants;hī(w)na, gen. pl. ofhīwan, domestics.
hing,to hang. Machin, The Dumb Knight, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 128. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in England in the north and midland counties as far as Warwick. ME.hinge, to hang, to be hung (Wars Alex. 4565). Icel.hengja(causal vb.).
hinny,to neigh as a horse; ‘I hynnye as a horse’, Palsgrave; ‘He neigheth and hinnieth, all is hinnying sophistry’, B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, v. 3 (Busy).
hippocras,a cordial drink made of wine flavoured with spices. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, i. 1 (Lady);Hypocrace, ‘vinum myrrhatum’, Levins, Manipulus;ipocras, Heywood, 1 Pt. Edw. IV. (Wks. ed. 1874, i. 10). ME.ipocras(Chaucer, C. T.E.1807); see note in Wks., v. 361. OF.ipocras,ypocras, forms of the Greek proper name Hippocrates, a famous physician, diedB.C.357. The cordial was so called because it was run through a strainer or ‘Ipocras’ bag, see NED. (s.v. Hippocras bag). See Stanford.
hippodame,a name given by Spenser to a fabulous sea-monster, F. Q. ii. 9. 50; iii. 11. 40. The allusion is probably to the ‘hippocamp’, or sea-horse, a monster with a horse’s body and a fish’s tail, used by the sea-gods, cp. W. Browne, Brit. Past. ii. 1: ‘Fair silver-footed Thetis . . . Guiding from rockes her chariot’s hyppocamps.’ In the formhippodame, Spenser was probably thinking ofhippotame, ME.ypotame, hippopotamus (K. Alis. 5184); see NED. (s.v. Hippopotamus).
hippogrif,a fabulous creature like a griffin, but with the body and hindquarters of a horse, Milton, P. L. iv. 542. Ital.ippogrifo(Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, iv. 4 and follg.), rendered ‘griffin-horse’ in Hoole’s Ariosto, iv. 125.
Hiren,a seductive female; ‘Haue wee not Hiren here?’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 173 (1597). An allusion to a female character in Peele’s play of ‘The Turkish Mahamet and Hyrin the fair Greek’ (ab. 1594); see NED. The initialHis superfluous, as the allusion is to the name Irene (F.Irène), Gk. εἰρήνη, peace. See Greene and Peele’s Works, ed. Dyce, p. 341. This play by Peele is lost.
his,after a sb., used instead of the genitive inflexion, chiefly with proper names; ‘For Jesus Christ his sake’, Book Com. Prayer; ‘Secretaries to the kyng his moste excellente majestie’, Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia, Ep. (ed. Lumby, 2); ‘Edward the Second of England, his Queen’, Bacon, Essay 19. See NED. (s.v. His, 4), and Notes to P. Plowman, C. xix. 236, p. 381. See Nares.
histriomastix,a severe critic of playwrights. Lady Alimony, i. 2 (Trills), where the epithet of ‘crop-eared’ is prefixed. The allusion is to the book entitled ‘Histriomastix, The Players’ Scourge’, by W. Prynne, published in 1633; for which he lost both ears, and was pilloried. L.histrio, an actor + Gk. μάστιξ, a scourge.
hizz,to hiss. King Lear, iii. 6. 17; Earle, Microcosmographie, § 25 (ed. Arber, p. 46).
ho,a cry calling on one to stop; cessation, intermission, limit. Phr.out of all ho, out of all limit, beyond all moderate bounds, Greene, Friar Bacon, iv. 2 (1733); scene 11. 73 (W.); p. 174, col. 2 (D.). In Yorkshire they say, ‘There is no ho with him’, i.e. there is no moderation, he is not to be restrained. ‘Out of all ho’ in the sense of ‘immoderately’ is a common phrase in the west Midlands. See EDD. (s.v. Ho, sb.15). ME.ho, cessation, in phr.withouten ho(Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1083). See Nares.
hob,a sprite, hobgoblin. Mirror for Mag., Glendour, st. 8; ‘From elves, hobs, and fairies . . . From fire-drakes and fiends . . . Defend us, good heaven!’, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 6. For the folk-lore connected with the sprite calledHob, see EDD.Hobis a familiar or rustic abbreviation of the name Robert or Robin, cp. Coriolanus, ii. 3. 123, ‘To beg of Hob and Dick’. See Nares.
hoball,a term of abuse. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (Merygreek); ‘An hobbel, cobbel, dullard,haebes,barbus’, Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north, meaning a fool, a dull, stupid person, a blockhead, see EDD. (s.v. Hobbil, sb.1).
hobby,a small kind of hawk; ‘Hobreau, the hawke tearmed a hobby’, Cotgrave; Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 195;hobies, pl., Sir T. Elyot, Governour, cap. xviii. ME.hoby, ‘alaudarius’ (Cath. Angl.); OF.hobe, see Hatzfeld (s.v. Hobereau).
hobby,a small or middle-sized horse; ‘Hobin, a hobbie, a little ambling horse’, Cotgrave;hobby-headed, shaggy-headed like a hobby or small pony, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, ii. 3 (Maria). ‘Hobby’ is in prov. use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Hobby, sb.11), also in Ireland, see Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, 274.
hobby-horse.In the morris-dance and on the stage, a figure of a horse, made of light material, and fastened about the waist of the performer, who imitated the antics of a skittish horse; also, the performer. L. L. L. iii. 1. 30; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 5 (Ralph).
hobler,forhobbler,a child’s top that wobbles, or spins unsteadily. Hence, a useless toy, Lyly, Mother Bombie, v. 3 (Bedunenus).
hob-man-blind,a name for the game of blind-man’s-buff. Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 364; Heywood, Wise Wom. Hogsdon, iii. (Works, v. 310). ‘Hobman’ in Yorkshire is a name for a sprite, hobgoblin, see EDD. (s.v. Hob, sb.14 (2)).
hock-cart,the last cart at harvest-home. Herrick has a short poem, entitled ‘The Hock-Cart, or Harvest Home’, where he says, ‘The harvest swains and wenches bound For joy, to see the Hock-Cart crown’d’ (Nares); see Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 301. Cp. the Hertfordsh. term ‘the Hockey Cart’, the cart that brings in the last corn of the harvest, see EDD. (s.v. Hockey, sb.12 (2)). Prob. conn. with Low G.hokk(pl.hokken), a heap of sheaves (Berghaus). Seehooky.
Hock-day,the second Tuesday after Easter Sunday (NED.).Hock Monday, the Monday in ‘Hock-tide’; ‘Recdof the women upon Hoc Monday 5s.2d.’, Churchwardens’ Accounts, Kingston-upon-Thames, ann. 1578, see Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 104; speltHough-munday, Arden of Feversham, iv. 3. 43. See NED. (s.v. Hock-day) and EDD. (s.v. Hock, sb.21 (2)).
hoddydoddy,a short and dumpy person; a simpleton, dupe. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 25; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 10. 65. See EDD. (s.v. Hoddydoddy, 3).
hoddypeke,a simpleton. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, iii. 3 (Chat); Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1176;huddypeke, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 42; Skelton, Why Come ye Nat to Courte, 326.
hodermoder, in,in secret, secretly. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 69;in huddermother, Ascham, Toxophilus, ed. Arber, p. 36; spelthuddermudder, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 74;hudther-mudther, Golding, Metam. xiii. 15.
hodmandod,a shell-snail. Webster, Appius, iii. 4 (Corbulo); Bacon, Sylva, § 732. An E. Anglian word (Ray, 1691); also in prov. use in various parts of England, meaning (1) a snail, (2) a clumsy ill-shaped person, (3) a simpleton, (4) a mean stingy person, (5) a scarecrow (EDD.).
hogrel, hoggerel,a young sheep of the second year; ‘Hoggerell, a yong shepe’, Palsgrave; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv, l. 72. ‘Hoggrel’ is in common prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England for a young sheep, before it has been shorn (EDD.).
hog-rubber,a clown; a term of reproach. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 2 (Moll).
hoiden,a rude, ignorant, ill-bred man. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts); ‘Shall I argue of conversation with this hoyden?’, Milton, Colasterion (Works, ed. 1851, p. 364); ‘Badault, a fool, dolt, sot, fop, ass, coxcomb, gaping hoydon’, Cotgrave. Du.heyden, ‘homo agrestis et incultus’ (Kilian).
hoigh, on the,in a state of excitement, riotously disposed, jolly. Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 2 (NED.); Heywood, A Woman Killed, i. 1 (Sir Francis).Hoigh=hoy, an interjectional cry denoting excitement.
hoit,to be noisy; to indulge in noisy mirth. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Burning Pestle, i. 3 (Mrs. M.); Etherege, Man of Mode, v. 2 (Dorimant); Fuller, Pisgah, ii. 4. 6. ‘To hoit’, to play the fool; ‘hoyting’, riotous and noisy mirth, are in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Hoit, vb.14).
hokos pokos,a juggler. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Mirth). Cp. G.hokuspokus, jugglery; see Weigand and H. Paul.
Hole, the;Seecounter(3). In Cook’s play of Green’s Tu Quoque (printed in Ancient E. Drama, ii. 563) Spendall is represented as in prison ‘on the Master’s side’, or the best part of the prison. But he runs through his money, and is advised to remove ‘into some cheaper ward’. He asks ‘What ward should I remove in?’ Holdfast replies, ‘Why, to the Twopenny Ward; . . . or, if you will, you may go into the Hole, and there you may feed for nothing.’ Seebasket.
Hollantide,the season of All Saints, the first week in November, All Hallows’-tide. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 1 (Mis. P.);All-holland-tide, Your Five Gallants, iv. 2 (Servant). See EDD. (s.v. Hallantide). OE.Hālgena tīd, the Saints’ Season.
holt,a small wood or grove. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 3 (Sul. Shepherd). ME.holt, a plantation (Chaucer, C. T.A.6). OE.holt, a wood (Beowulf).
Holyrood, Holyrode-day,the Festival of the Invention of the Holy Cross, May 3; ‘Any time between Martilmas and holy-rode day’, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 134. 21; the Festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Holy Cross Day, September 14, 1 Hen. IV, i. 1. 52.
honest,chaste. Merry Wives, ii. 1. 247; iii. 3. 236; iv. 2. 107; ‘Like as an whore envyeth an honest woman’, Coverdale, 2 Esdras xvi. 49.
honniken,a term of contempt; a despised fellow. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iv. 5 (Lord Mayor); herehonnikenis equated to needy knave. Evidently connected with MHG.hone, a despised person, one who lives in shame and contempt; cp. G.hohn, scorn, derision.
honorificabilitudinitatibus.Given as a specimen of a long word, L. L. L. v. 1. 41; Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1 (Fool).
hooch,a ‘hutch’, a chest. Gascoigne, Flowers (ed. Hazlitt, i. 67). ‘Hutch’ is in common prov. use in Suffolk for one of those oaken chests still to be seen in cottages (EDD.). ME.huche, ‘cista, archa’ (Prompt.); see note, no. 1031 (EETS., p. 622). Seehutch.
hoodman-blind,the game now called blind-man’s-buff. Hamlet, iii. 4. 77;hudman-blind, Merry Devil, i. 3. 52. From thehoodused to blind theman. Cp.hoodman, blinded man, All’s Well, iv. 3. 136. [This old word ‘hoodman-blind’ appears in Tennyson’s In Memoriam, lxxviii.]
hooky, hooky,a cry at harvest-home. Nash, Summer’s Last Will (Harvest), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 54. See EDD. (s.v. Hockey, sb.1). Seehock-cart.
hoop,to shout with wonder. Hen. V, ii. 2. 108; to shout at with insult, Cor. iv. 5. 84. (Usually altered towhoop.) Hence,Hooping, a cry of surprise, exclamation of wonder, As You Like It, iii. 2. 203. ME.howpe, to utter a hoop (Chaucer, C.T.B.4590), OF.huper(laterhouper).
hoove;seehove.
hope,expectation unaccompanied by desire. 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 235; Othello, i. 3. 203; to expect, Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, ii. 4 (Fernando); iv. 2 (Roseilli); Antony and Cl. ii. 1. 38.
hopper,the hopper of a mill;hopper-hipped, shaped about the hips like a ‘hopper’. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii. 1 (Sir Simon);hopper-rumped, Middleton, Women beware Women, ii. 2 (Sordido).
hopper-crow,a crow that follows a seed-hopper during sowing. Greene, James IV, v. 2. 10. See NED. ‘Hopper’, a seed-basket used in sowing corn by hand, is in prov. use from the north of England to Shropshire (EDD.).
hopshakles,‘hap-shackles’, bands for confining a horse or cow at pasture. Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 128. ‘Hapshackle’ still in use in Scotland (NED.).
horion,a severe blow. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 177. 19. F.horion, ‘a dust, cuff, rap, knock, thump’ (Cotgr.).
horn,a horn-thimble; ‘A horn on your thumb’, Cambyses, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 235. Seehorn-thumb.
hornbook,a paper containing the alphabet, &c., protected by a transparent plate of horn, and mounted on a wooden tablet with a handle. Used for teaching the very young. L. L. L. v. 1. 49; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 3. 46.
horn-keck,the gar-fish. Usedfig., ‘Suche an horne-keke’ (as a term of abuse), Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 77; l. 304.
horn-thumb,a thimble of horn worn on the thumb by cut-purses, for resisting the edge of the knife in cutting; ‘I mean a child of the horn-thumb, a babe of booty, a cut-purse’, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo). Cp. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 5 (1661); p. 138, col. 2.
horrent,bristling. Milton, P. L. ii. 513. L.horrens, rough, bristled.
horse,pl. horses. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iii. 280 (and very often). OE.hors, horses, pl. ofhors.
horsecorser,a dealer in horses. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, l. 1084. ‘A Horse Courser, or Horse scourser,mango equorum’, Minsheu (1627);horse-courser, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, Induction; Marlowe, Faustus, iv. 6. Seecorser.
hose,clothing for the legs and loins, breeches. As You Like It, ii. 7. 160; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 185, 239. ‘Doublet and hose’, the typical male attire (i.e. without a cloak), Much Ado, i. 203; Merry Wives, iii. 1. 47.
hospitage,hospitality. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 6. Med. L.hospitagium(Ducange).
hospitale,a place of rest, a building for receiving guests, a ‘hostel’. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 10. Med. L.hospitale(Ducange).
host,a victim to be sacrificed. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, l. 196. L.hostia, an animal sacrificed, victim.
host,to receive as a guest, to entertain. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 27;hosted with, lodged with, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 2.
hostless,inhospitable. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 3.
hostry,a hostelry, an inn, lodging; ‘There was no roume for them in the hostrey’, Tyndale, Luke ii. 7; Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 23; Marlowe, Faustus, iv. 6 (near the end). OF.hosterie,hostrie, an inn. Cp. Ital.osteria.
hot,pt. t.ofhit. Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 276; Beard, Theatre, God’s Judgem. i. 21 (ed. 1631, 122); pp., R. Scott, Discov. Witcher. xii. 15 (ed. 1886, 206). In prov. use in Warwicksh., Bedfordsh., and Suffolk, see EDD. (s.v. Hit, 2 and 3).
hot, hote,was named, was called; ‘It rightly hot The well of life’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 29; ‘Another Knight that hote Sir Brianor’, ib., iv. 4. 40. OE.hātte(Matt. xiii. 55), pres. and pt. t. ofhātan, to be called. Seehight.
hote,pt. t., named; ‘A shepheard trewe yet not so true As he that earst I hote’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 164. A mistaken form, from confusion with the above. The usual late ME. form ishight(hiȝt),hehte(in Layamon); OE.hēht(hēt), pt. t. ofhātan, to call, name.
hot-house,a bagnio, house for hot baths; a house of ill-fame. Measure for M. ii. 1. 66; Westward Ho (near the beginning).
Hough-munday;seeHock-day.
hounces,housings, trappings of a horse; ‘Gemmes That stood upon the Collars, Trace, and Hounces in their Hemmes’, Golding, Metam. ii. 109 (not in Latin text). The explanation in NED., ‘an ornament on the collar of a horse’, applies only to other passages; in this case, the gems ornamented the collars, traces, and housings. ‘Hounce’ is an E. Anglian word for the red and yellow worsted ornament spread over the collar of a cart-horse (EDD.). It is a nasalized form of F.housse, a foot-cloth for a horse (Cotgr.).
housel(fig.used), to give repentance to; ‘May zealous smiths so housel all our hacknies, that they may feel compunction in their feet’, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 1, (Shorthose). See below.
housling;‘The housling fire’, i.e. the sacramental fire, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 37. The Roman marriage was solemnizedsacramento ignis et aquae. ME.houselen, to administer the Eucharist (P. Plowman, B. xix. 3);housele, the Eucharist (ib., C. xxii. 394). OE.hūsel. See Dict. (s.v. Housel).
hout,a ‘hoot’, an outcry, clamour. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iv. 1 (Andrugio). See Dict. (s.v. Hoot).
hove,to tarry, stay, dwell. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 20; Colin Clout, 666; ‘(At Bosworth) some stode hovynge a-ferre of’, Fabyan (cited by Way). A north-country word, now obsolete (EDD.). ME.hovyn, as hors, and abydyn, ‘sirocino’, Prompt. EETS. 236. See Dict. M. and S., and Way’s note in Prompt., p. 252.
Howleglas;seeOwlglass.
howres,hours, i.e. the prayers said at the canonical hours or stated times for prayer; ‘The Hermite . . . Was wont his howres and holy things to bed’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 5. 35. See Dict. Christ. Antiq. (s.v. Hours of Prayer).
hoyle,a mark made use of by archers when shooting at rovers (NED.). Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 334. Seerove.
hoyn,to grumble, grunt. Skelton, Against Ven. Tongues, 4. A Lincoln word, see EDD. (s.v. Hone, vb.21). Norm. F.hoigner, ‘hogner, geindre, pleurnicher, se lamenter’ (Moisy).
hoyst, brock!,a cry of encouragement to a horse. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ii, ch. 10.
huck-bone,the hip-bone. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 57. 4. ‘Huck’ is a Lincoln word, see EDD. (s.v. Hock, sb.11), so, in Tennyson’s Northern Cobbler, ‘I slither’d an’ hurted my huck.’ See NED.
hucke,to higgle, chaffer, bargain. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v, ch. 26, st. 45; ‘I love not to sell my ware to you, you hucke so sore’, Palsgrave. A west-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Huck, vb.2). ME.hukke, ‘auccionor’ (Voc. 566. 36). Cp. MHG.hucke, ‘Kleinhändler’ (Lexer).
huckle,the hip, haunch. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 45; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 925. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).
huckle-bone,the hip-bone, Hobbes, Iliad, 67 (NED.); the astragalus, ‘ Ἀστράγαλος is in Latintalusand it is the little square hucclebone in the ancle place of the hinder legge in all beastes saving man’, Udall, Apoph., 185; ‘Bibelots, hucklebones or the play at hucklebones’, Cotgrave. This name for the game is in prov. use in the north, in Lincoln, Surrey, and Sussex (EDD.).
huckson,lit. the hough-sinew; also, the hough or hock; corresponding to the heel in man. Herrick, The Beggar to Mab, 11. A Devon word, see EDD. (s.v. Hock, sb.1). OE.hōhsinu. See NED. (s.v. Hockshin, also, Huxen).
hudder-mudder;seehodermoder.
huddle,to hurry; ‘The huddling brook’, Milton, Comus, 495; ‘Country vicars when the sermon’s done, Run huddling to the benediction’, Dryden, Epil. to Sir Martin Mar-all, 2; to hurry over in a slovenly way, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georgics, i. 353.
huddle, old,a term of contempt for a decrepit old man. Lyly, Euphues, p. 133; Webster, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole).
huddypeke;seehoddypeke.
hudman-blind;seehoodman-blind.
huff,to brag, talk big, bluster; freq.to huff it. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 2. 35 (Knowell); Peele, Battle of Alcazar, ii. 2 (end);huff, a specimen of brag, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 2. 391; hencehuff-cap, a swaggerer, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 3 (King);attrib.blustering, swaggering, ‘Half-cap terms’, Bp. Hall, Sat. i. 3. 17.
huffecap,a heady ale; ‘Such headie ale and beere as for the mightinesse thereof . . . is commonlie called huffecap’, Harrison, Desc. England, bk. ii, ch. 18; ‘This Huf-cap (as they call it) andnectarof lyfe’, Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (Church-ales); Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 3.
hugger-mugger,secretly. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 392;in hugger-mugger, Hamlet, iv. 5. 84; Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 123; Spenser, Mother Hub. 139. Etymology unknown. It has been suggested thathugger-muggermay be connected with the Anglo-Irishcugger-mugger, which means whispering, gossiping in a low voice, see Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, p. 243, and Modern Language Review, July, 1912 (On some Etymologies).
hugy,huge, vast. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 503; Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid v, 113.
huisher,an ‘usher’, door-keeper of a court, servant of an official, B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 3. 11; ‘His sergeants or huishers (lictores)’, Holland, Livy, xxiv. 44;husher, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 13;hushier, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Induction. F.huissier, deriv. of (h)uis, door. See Dict. (s.v. Usher).
huke,a cape or cloak, with a hood. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 56; Bacon, New Atlantis, 1639, p. 24. OF.huque. Med. L.huca, ‘ricinium quo scilicet mulieres olim caput operiebant et velabant’ (Ducange).
hulched up,cramped up; ‘I hate to be hulched up in a coach’, Etherege, Man of Mode, iii. 3 (Belinda).
hulder,the name of a kind of wood for arrows; ‘Hulder, black thorne . . . make holow, starting, studding, gaddynge shaftes’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 124. The MHG.holder(G.holunder) means ‘elder’; it is objected that Ascham mentions ‘elder’ in the same sentence, and this suggests some difference. The difference may be only in name, according as the wood is foreign or native. Some sayhulver(= holly) is meant; but I thinkhollywould be praised.
hulk,to disembowel; ‘Hulke hir (which is to open hir and take out hyr garbage)’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 62; p. 175; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4. 36. In prov. use in E. Anglia for taking out the entrails of a rabbit, see EDD. (s.v. Hulk, vb.31).
hull,to float, to drift, or move on the sea as a ship with the sails furled, by the action of winds and waves upon the hull. Richard III, iv. 4. 488; Twelfth Night, i. 5. 217; Milton, P. L. xi. 840; Sir T. Browne, Christian Morals, i. 1 (ed. Greenhill, 161).
hum,a kind of liquor; strong or double ale. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Satan); Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, ii. 3 (Belleur). Hence,Hum-glass, a glass for ‘hum’. Shirley, The Wedding, ii. 3 (Lodam). See Nares.
humblesse,humility. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 26; i. 12. 8. Anglo-F.humblesse(Gower).
humbling,rumbling (of wind blasts); Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid (ed. Arber, 19); buzzing as a bee (ed. Arber, 31).
humdrum,a commonplace fellow; ‘Stand still humdrum’, Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 112; ‘A consort for every humdrum’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 1 (Stephen).
humect,to moisten. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 11 (end). L.humectare,humectus, wet;humere,umere, to be wet.
humorous,moist, humid, damp; ‘Every lofty top, which late the humorous night Bespangled had with pearle’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 214; ‘The humorous night’, Romeo, ii. 1. 31; with play on sense of fanciful, whimsical, humoursome, L. L. L. iii. 1. 177; moody, ill-humoured, As You Like It, i. 2. 278.
humour;in ancient and mediaeval physiology, one of the four chief fluids (blood, phlegm, choler, melancholy) by the relative proportions of which a man’s physical and mental qualities were supposed to be determined; hence, mental disposition, temperament, mood. L. L. L. v. 1. 10; Merry Wives, ii. 3. 80. See Schmidt’s Shakespeare-Lexicon (s.v.); also, B. Jonson’s Every Man in Humour (H. B. Wheatley’s account of the word in Introduction, pp. xxx-xxxiv).
Humphrey;seeDuke Humphrey.
hunte, hunt,a hunter, huntsman. Golding, Metam. viii. 359; Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 313; Drant, tr. of Horace, Sat. i. 1 (NED.). OE.hunta, a huntsman (Chron., ann. 1127); hence Hunt as a proper name.
hunt’s-up,the hunt is up; a tune played to awaken huntsmen. Romeo, iii. 5. 34;the hunt is up, Titus Andron. ii. 2. 1; Fletcher, Bonduca, ii. 4 (near the end).
hurle,strife, commotion. Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 27. ME.hurl, or debate, ‘sedicio’ (Prompt.). See below.
hurlwind,a tempestuous wind. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 8. Cp. the Cumberland word ‘hurl’ for a tempest, see EDD. (s.v. Hurl, sb.311). ME.hurle, rush, noise (of the sea);hurling, roaring (Wars Alex.).
hurricano,a hurricane. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, v. 2 (Malefort); a water-spout, ‘The dreadful spout which shipmen do the hurricano call’, Tr. and Cr. v. 2. 172. See Dict. (s.v. Hurricane), and Stanford.
hurring,reverberation. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 253.
hurry-durry,boisterous, as rough weather; hence, impatient, irritable; ‘ ’Tis a hurry-durry blade’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, i. 1 (2 Sailor).
huswife, housewife,a hussy, a pert girl. North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 3 (in Shak. Plut., p. 161); ‘Impudent housewife!’ Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, v. 2 (Gripe).
hutch,to hoard, as in ahutchor chest. Milton, Comus, 719. Seehooch.
hyaline;‘The clear Hyaline, the glassy sea’, Milton, P. L. vii. 619. Cp. Apoc. iv. 6: θάλασσα ὑαλίνη, ‘a sea of glass like unto crystal.’
hyce, hyse,to ‘hoist’ up; ‘I hyce up an ancre; I hyse up the sayle’, Palsgrave. Dutchhyssen, ‘to hoise’ (Sewel). See Dict. (s.v. Hoist).
hydegy,a rustic dance. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 264;hydagy, id., xxvi. 206. Seehay-de-guy.
hydromancy,divination by water. Greene, Friar Bacon, scene 2. 16 (W.); p. 155, col. 1 (D). Gk. ὑδρομαντεία.
hydroptic,dropsical; ‘His hydroptic thoughts’, Lady Alimony, i. 3 (Timon). [‘Soul-hydroptic with a sacred thirst’, Browning, Grammarian’s Funeral, 95.] Deriv. of Gk. ὕδρωψ, the dropsy.
hydrus,a water-snake. Milton, P. L. x. 525. L.hydrus; Gk. ὕδρος, a water-snake. Cp.hydra.
hyke,a cry to hounds, to encourage them to the chase; ‘Hyke a Talbot, Hyke a Bewmont, Hyke, Hyke, to him, to him’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; p. 112; ‘Hike, hallow, hike’, id., c. 62, p. 175. [Cp. Scott, Quentin Durward, c. 33.]
hylegorhylech;‘A Term apply’d by Astrologers to a Planet, or part of Heaven which in a Man’s Nativity becomes the Moderator and Significator of his Life’, Phillips, Dict. (1706); Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret); Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 3, 7; B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Canter). Pers. (and Turkish)hailāj, a calculation of astrologers, a ‘nativity’. See NED.
hypodidascal,an usher. Shirley, Love Tricks, iii. 5 (Gorgon). Gk. ὑποδιδάσκαλος, under-master or subordinate teacher.
hypostasis,a sediment, esp. of urine. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, v. 3 (Physician); Nabbes, Microcosmus, iv (Phlegm). Gk. ὑπόστασις, lit. that which stands under; hence, sediment.