A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists

by Walter W. Skeat

H

ha and ree, words of command to a horse to direct it. Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs) (vol. i. 44); hey and ree, Micro-Cynicon, Halliwell (s.v. Ree). In prov. use, ree is an exclamation made by the carter to bid the leading horse of a team to turn or bear to the right, see EDD. (s.v. Rec, int., also, Hay-ree). In the north country the carters use the phrase neither heck nor ree, neither left nor right: ‘He’ll neither heck nor ree’, i.e. he’ll not obey the word of command, he’s quite unmanageable, see EDD. (s.v. Heck, int.). See [hay-ree] and [hayte and ree], also [gee and ree].

hab, to have; nab, not to have; hence, phr. by habs and by nabs, at random; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iii. 2 (Soto). In Somerset and Devon hab or nab, by hook or by crook: ‘I’ll ab’m—hab or nab’, I’ll have them anyhow (EDD.). See [hab-nab].

haberdash, small wares. Spelt haburdashe, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1295. ‘Ther haberdashe, Ther pylde pedlarye’, Papist. Exhort. (Nares). Still in use in Aberdeen (EDD.). Anglo-F. hapertas, the name of a fabric (Rough List). See Dict. (s.v. Haberdasher).

habiliment, outfit, accoutrement, attire. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 30; Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalura). See [abiliments].

habilitate, legally qualified. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 15). Med. Lat. habilitare, ‘idoneum, habilem reddere; informare, instituere’ (Ducange).

habilitation, endowment with ability or fitness; qualification, training. Bacon, Essay 29, § 8.

habilitie, ability. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 8, § 2.

hable, habile, ‘able’. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 19. See Dict. (s.v. Able).

hab-nab, have or not have, hit or miss; a phrase signifying the taking one’s chance; ‘Hab-nab’s good’, I take my chance, Ford, Lady’s Trial, ii. 1 (Fulgoso); at random, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 990. See EDD. (s.v. Hab, adv., 1). See [hab].

hache, axe, hatchet. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, § 2. F. hache, an axe, O. Prov. apcha (Levy); of Germ. origin, cp. OHG. heppa (for *happi̯a), a sickle; see Schade (s.v. Happâ).

hackle, to hack about, to mangle. Hackled, pp.; North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 44 (in Shak. Plut., p. 101, n. 1).

hackster, haxter, a hacker, one who hacks; hence, a cut-throat, bravo, bully. Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, iii (Monsieur); Hall, Satires, iv. 4. 60; haxter, Lady Alimony, i. 2 (Messenger).

hacqueton; see [haqueton].

had I wist, if I had but known. A common exclamation of one who repents too late. Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 893; London Prodigal, iii. 1. 49; Two Angry Women, iv. 3 (Nicholas). ME. hadde I wist: ‘Upon his fortune and his grace Comth “Hadde I wist” ful ofte a place’, Gower (C. A. i. 1888).

hade, a strip of land left unploughed as a boundary line and means of access between two ploughed portions of a field. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 6; Drayton, Pol. xiii. 222 and 400. In Corpus Coll., Oxford, there is a Map (date 1615) in which there is a description of certain arable lands having ‘hades’ of meadow and grass ground lying in the south field of Eynsham. See EDD. (s.v. Hade, sb.¹).

hæmeræ, for hemeræ, pl., ephemera, ephemeral flies, day-flies. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1482); scene 10. 124 (W.); p. 171, col. 2 (D.). For ephemera, Med. L. ephemera, Gk. ἐφήμερα, neut. pl. of ἐφήμερος, lasting or living but a day.

hæmony. Name given by Milton to an imaginary plant having supernatural virtues. Milton, Comus, 638. Gk. αἱμώνιος, blood-red (probably with a theological allusion).

haft, to use shifts, haggle. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1698; to cheat, id., Bowge of Courte, 521; hence hafter, a cheat, thief; id., Bowge of Courte, 138. Cp. Yorkshire word ‘heft’ in the sense of deceit, dissimulation, see EDD. (s.v. Heft, sb.³).

hafter, a wrangler; ‘Vitilitigator, an hafter, a wrangler, a quarreller’, Gouldman, Dict., 1678; so Baret, 1580.

hag, to trouble as the nightmare. Drayton, Heroic Ep. (Wks. ed. 1748, p. 108); spelt haggue, to vex, worry. Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 95.

haggard, a wild female hawk, caught when in her adult plumage. Much Ado, iii. 1. 36; wild, intractable, inexperienced, B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iii. 3 (Compass); Othello, iii. 3. 260; ‘I teach my haggard and unreclaimed Reason to stoop unto the lure of Faith’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med. (ed. Greenhill, 19). F. hagard, ‘hagard, wild, unsociable’ (Cotgr.).

hailse, to salute, greet; ‘I haylse or greete’, Palsgrave; ‘Wee hadde haylsed eche other’, Robinson, tr. of Utopia (ed. Arber, p. 30). Icel. heilsa, to salute.

haine, hayne, a miser, a penurious person, a mean wretch. Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 327; Udall, tr. Apoph., Aristippus, § 22, Diogenes, § 106; Levins, Manipulus, 200; hence, haynyarde, a mean wretch, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1748. ME. heyne, a wretch (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1319).

hair: in phr. against the hair, against the grain, contrary to nature. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 1 (end); Mayor of Queenborough, iii. 2 (1 Lady); Merry Wives, ii. 3. 42.

hala; see [heloe].

hale, hall, a place roofed over, a pavilion, tent, booth; ‘Hall, a long tent in a felde, tente’, Palsgrave; ‘He would set up his hals and tentes’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 5 (in Shak. Plut., p. 161, n. 8). ME. hale, ‘papilio’ (Prompt. EETS. 211, see note, no. 961). OF. hale (F. halle), a covered market-place.

hale and ho, pull and cry ho!, a cry of sailors at work. Morte Arthur, leaf 118, back, 13; bk. vii, c. 15. ME. halyn or drawyn, ‘traho’ (Prompt. EETS. 230).

half-acre, a small piece of ground, without reference to the exact size of the field; ‘Tom Tankard’s cow . . . flinging about his halfe-aker’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2 (see note on P. Plowman, C. ix. 2, p. 156). At Yarnton, near Oxford, a ‘half-acre’, pronounced habaker, is a term employed for half a lot of an allotment, see EDD. (s.v. Half, 6 (1)).

halfendeale, half, half-part. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 53. A Somerset word (EDD.). ME. halvendel, the half part of a thing (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 335). OE. healfan dǣl, the half ‘deal’ or part.

half-pace; see [halpace].

halidom: orig. the holy relics upon which oaths were sworn; the ancient formula being ‘as helpe me God and halidome’; altered later to ‘by my halidome’, which was subsequently used by itself as a weak asseveration. Taming Shrew, v. 2. 100; Hen. VIII, v. 1. 117. In old edds. of Shaks. we find holydam(e due to association with dame, the phrase being popularly taken as equivalent to ‘By our Lady’; see NED. OE. hāligdōm, holiness, a holy place, a holy relic.

Hallowmas, the feast of All Hallows, or All Saints, Nov. 1. Spelt Hallomas, Tusser, Husbandry, § 23. 1 (Hallontide, id., § 21. 1); Meas. for Meas. ii. 1. 128; Richard II, v. 1. 80. In prov. use in Scotland; also in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Hallow (7)).

halpace, a high step or raised floor. Hall, Chron. (ed. 1809, p. 606); ‘On the altar an halpas . . . and on the halpas stood twelve images’, Holinshed, Chron. iii. 857; also, through popular etymology half-pace, the uppermost step before the choir of a church, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 98). F. (16th cent.) hault pas (haut pas), high step.

halse, haulse, to embrace. Pt. t. haulst, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 49; ‘I halse one, I take hym aboute the necke, je accolle’, Palsgrave. See EDD. (s.v. Halse, vb. 9). ME. halsyn, ‘amplector’ (Prompt.), deriv. of hals, the neck, OE. heals (hals). See [hause].

haltersack, a gallows-bird, rascal. Beaumont and Fl., King and No King, ii. 2 (1 Cit. Wife); Knt. of B. Pestle, i. 3 (Citizen). Gascoigne, Supposes, iii. 1 (Dalio). See Nares.

hame, a haulm, stalk; straw. Golding, Metam. i. 492; fol. 9 (1603); also hawme, Tusser, Husbandry, § 57. 15. In gen. prov. use in numerous forms, see EDD. (s.v. Haulm). ME. halme, or stobyl, ‘stipula’ (Prompt. EETS. 212). OE. healm (Anglian halm).

hamper up, to fasten up, make fast. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 3 (750); scene 6. 136 (W.); p. 162, col. 2 (D.).

han, pres. pl. have. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 168. This plural form is still in prov. use from Yorkshire to Shropshire, see EDD. (s.v. Have). ME. han: ‘Thei han Moyses and the prophetis’ (Wyclif, Luke xvi. 29); hafen (Lamb. Hom. 59). OE. habben (hæbben), pres. pl. subj. (Wright, OE. Gram., § 538).

hand: phr. to hand with, to go hand in hand with, to concur; ‘Let but my power and means hand with my will’, Massinger, Renegado, iv. 1 (Grimaldi).

hand over head, inconsiderately, recklessly, hastily, indiscriminately; ‘They ran in amongst them hand over head’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 28 (in Shak. Plut., p. 141, n. 3); cp. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 51, st. 22. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Hand, 2 (8)).

hands: phr. to shake hands with, to bid farewell to, to say good-bye to; ‘I have shaken hands with delight’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med. (ed. Greenhill, 66); ‘To shake hands with labour for ever’, Harrison in Holinshed (ed. 1807, i. 314). [Cp. Charles Lamb in Elia, Early Rising, ‘He has shaken hands with the world’s business, has done with it.’]

handsel, hansel, a gift or present, as an omen of good luck or an expression of good wishes. Dunbar, New Year’s Gift, iii. As vb., to use for the first time, ‘My lady . . . is so ravished with desire to hansel her new coach’, Eastward Ho, ii. 1 (Touchstone). The verb ‘to hansel’, meaning ‘to use a thing for the first time’ is very common in prov. use in Scotland, and in various parts of England fr. Northumberland to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Handsel, vb. 12).

handwolf, a tame wolf, wolf brought up by hand. Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, iv. 1 (Amintor).

handydandy, a children’s game, in which one child conceals something between the hands, and the other guesses in which hand it is. ‘Handy dandy, prickly prandy, which hand will you have?’ Chapman, Blind Beggar, p. 6. See EDD. (s.v. Handy).

hane, a ‘khan’, an Eastern inn (unfurnished); a caravanserai; ‘Hanes to entertain travellers’; Howell, Foreign Travell, Appendix, p. 84; ‘Hanes for the relief of Travellers’, Sandys, Travels, p. 57 (Nares). See [cane].

hang-by, a hanger-on, a dependant. Gosson, School of Abuse, ed. Arber, p. 40; Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iv. 2 (Orleans). In prov. use in W. Yorks.; see EDD. (s.v. Hang, vb. 1 (5)).

hanger, a loop or strap or a sword-belt from which the sword was hung. Hamlet, i. 2. 157; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 5 (Matthew).

hank, a hold, a power of check or restraint; ‘I have a hank upon you’, Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Beaugard). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Hank, sb.¹ 7).

Hans-in-kelder, a familiar term for an unborn infant. Dryden, Wild Gallant, v. 2; Wycherley, Love in a Wood, v. 6 (Sir Simon); Marvell, The Character of Holland, 66. See Stanford. Dutch Hans in Kelder, lit. ‘Jack in Cellar’, an unborn child; cp. the Swabian toast Hänschen im Keller soll leben, ‘dies sagt man bei dem Gesundheit-trinken auf eine schwangere Frau’ (Birlinger); Bremen dial. Hänsken im Keller (Wtb.).

happily, perhaps, possibly. Titus Andron. iv. 3. 8; Hamlet, i. 1. 134; ii. 2. 402.

haqueton, hacqueton, a stuffed jacket worn under armour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 38. ME. aketoun (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2050); OF. auqueton, alquetun, O. Prov. alcoton, ‘hoqueton, casaque rembourrée, originairement en coton’ (Levy); Span. algodon, Port. algodão, cotton, Arab, al-qotun, see Dozy, Glossaire, 127.

haras, harres, a stud of horses; troop, collection. Skelton, Against Garnesche, ed. Dyce, i. 128; l. 77. OF. haras, a stud of horses (Hatzfeld); Med. L. haracium, ‘armentum equorum et jumentorum’ (Ducange). Arab. faras, horse; cp. O. Span. alfaras, ‘cavallo generoso’; see Dozy, 108.

harass, harassment, devastation. Milton, Samson, 257.

harborough, ‘harbour’, shelter. Spenser, Shep. Kal., June, 19; Tanered and Gismunda, v. 2 (Gismunda); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 85. See [herberow].

harborowe, to lodge; to track a stag to his harbour or covert. A hunting term. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, § 6; harbord, pp. lodged, Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 311, l. 6. See Dict. (s.v. Harbour).

hardel, a hurdle; ‘Hardels made of stickes’, Golding, Metam. i. 122; fol. 2, bk. (1603); a kind of frame or sledge on which traitors used to be drawn through the streets to execution, ‘Upon an hardle or sled’, Harrison, Desc. England, ii. 11 (ed. Furnivall, 222).

hardocks, some kind of wild flowers. In King Lear, iv. 4. 4 (ed. 1623), Lear is ‘Crown’d . . . with Hardokes, Hemlocke, Nettles, Cuckoo flowres, Darnell, and all the idle weedes that grow In our sustaining Corne.’ As Hardokes are not known, I suggest that the right word is Hawdods; indeed, the quartos have hordocks. The hawdod (described by Fitzherbert, Husbandry, 1534) is the beautiful blue cornflower, the most showy and attractive of all the flowers that grow in the corn; see EDD. The prefix haw means ‘blue’, see NED.; from OE. hǣwe, blue.

hare: phr. there goeth the hare, ‘That’s the direction in which the hare goes, that is the way to follow up’, New Custom, ii. 3 (Perverse Doctrine); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 39; ‘Hic labor, hoc opus est, there goeth the hare away’, Stubbes, School of Abuse (ed. Arber, p. 70).

hare, to frighten, scare. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Dame Turfe). In prov. use in Oxfordshire and the south country, see EDD. (s.v. Hare, vb.).

†harlock, an unknown flower; perhaps for hawdod, the blue cornflower. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 34. Harlocks is a conjectural emendation for hardokes in King Lear, iv. 4. 4. See [hardocks].

harlot, a vagabond, rascal. Tusser, Husbandry, § 74. 4; Coriol. iii. 2. 112. ME. harlot, a person of low birth, a ribald, rogue, rascal (Chaucer), see Dict. M. and S.; OF. herlot, arlot, ribaud (Godefroy); O. Prov. arlot, ‘gueux, ribaud’ (Levy). See Dict.

harman-beck, a constable. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See [hartmans].

harness, the defensive or body armour of a man-at-arms; the defensive equipment of a horseman. Macbeth, v. 5. 52; Bible, 1 Kings xx. 11; xxii. 34; ‘I can remember that I buckled his [the King’s] harness when he went into Blackheath field’, Latimer, Sermon, p. 101; see Bible Word-Book. ME. harneys, armour (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1006). See Dict.

harnest, harnessed, armed. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 70.

harpè, a falchion, scimitar. Heywood, Silver Age, A. i (Perseus); vol. iii, p. 92. From Ovid, Met. v. 69, 176. L. harpē; Gk. ἅρπη, a sickle, a scimitar.

harper, harp-shilling, a coin having on the reverse an Irish harp, and worth only 9d. in English money; ‘Your shilling proved but a harper’, Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange (Cripple), vol. i, p. 26; ‘A plain harp-shilling’, Greene, King James IV, iii. 2 (Andrew). And see Webster, Sir T. Wyatt, ed. Dyce, p. 197, col. 1 (bottom).

harre, a hinge, of a door or gate; ‘Chardonnerau, a harre of a doore’, Cotgrave; out of harre, off its hinge, out of joint, Skelton. Magnyfycence, 921. In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. Harr, 3). ME. Harre of a dore, ‘carde’ (Cath. Angl.); OE. heorr.

harres; see [haras].

Harrington, a farthing; as coined by Harrington (1613); ‘I will not bate a Harrington of the sum’, B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer). See Nares.

harriot, a heriot; a payment to the lord of a manor, due on the death of a tenant. Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, iv. 3 (Nimis); ‘A heriot or homage’, Howell, Famil. Letters, vol. i, letter 38, § 2 (1621). OE. heregeatwe, lit. military equipments. See Dict. (s.v. Heriot).

†harrolize, to ‘heraldise’, act as a herald, emblazon arms; ‘He harrolized well’, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 35, st. 4.

harrot, a ‘herald’. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1 (Sogliardo); Case is altered, iv. 4 (near the end). OF. heraut, herault. See NED.

harrow, interj., a cry of distress. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 43. ME. ‘I wol crye out harrow and alas’, Chaucer (C. T. A. 3286); Norm. F. harou, ‘Le cri ou la clameur de haro ou de harou était un appel public à la justice et à la protection’ (Moisy); see Didot.

harrow, to subdue, despoil. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 40. Used with reference to Christ’s ‘Harrowing of Hell’, or despoiling it by the rescue thence of the patriarchs, &c., as described in the pseudo-gospel of Nicodemus. See the passage from Legenda Aurea, cap. liv, quoted in Notes to P. Plowman, C. xxi. 261 (pp. 410, 411).

Harry-groat, a groat of Henry VIII. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, i. 2 (Young Loveless); Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Jaques); Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Aurelia).

hart of grece, a fat hart; ‘Eche of them slewe a harte of grece’, Adam Bell, 105 (Child’s Ballads, p. 251); Ballad of Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryar (Child’s Ballads, p. 299). See Nares (s.v. Greece).

hart-of-ten, a hart having as many as ten points on each horn, and therefore full-grown; ‘The total number of points, counting all the tines, is ten’, Cent. Dict. (s.v. Antler); ‘Whan an hart hath fourched, and then auntlere ryall and surryall, and forched on the one syde, and troched on that other syde, than is he an hert of .X. and the more’, Venery de Twety, in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 151; ‘An Hart of tenne’, Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 311.

hartmans, harmans, the stocks. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘The harmans, the stockes’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See [harman-beck].

haskard, a base, vulgar fellow. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 606; id., Dethe of Erle of Northumberland, 24. See NED.

haske, a rush or wicker basket. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 16 (explained as ‘a wicker ped, wherein they use to carrie fish’); ‘Cavagna, a fishers basket, or haske’, Florio. See NED. (s.v. Hask).

hatch, a half-door, wicket with an open space above; ‘Ore [o’er] the hatch’, King John, i. 1. 171; ‘Take the hatch’ (jump over it), King Lear, iii. 6. 76; ‘As hound at hatch’ (i.e. like a dog set to watch the door’), Turbervile, The Lover to Cupid, st. 12 from end.

hatched, inlaid, or ornamented on the surface with gold or silver work; ‘My sword well hatch’d’, Fletcher, Bonduca, ii. 2 (Junius); iii. 5; ‘hatched hilts’, Valentinian, ii. 2. 7; deeply marked, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, i. 1 (Antigonus); Custom of the Country, v. 5 (Guiomar); marked with lines like a thing engraved, marked with lines of white hair, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 65; ‘hatched in silver’, Shirley, Love in a Maze, ii. 2 (Simple).

hatchel, to comb flax or hemp with a ‘hatchel’. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, ii. 3 (Song); ‘Serancer, to hatchel flax, &c., to comb, or dress it on an iron comb’, Cotgrave. A Cheshire word (EDD.).

hate, for ha’ it, have it. Puritan Widow, iii. 3. 141. Spelt ha ’t, riming with gate; Parliament of Bees, character 3.

hatter, to bruise, batter; hatter out, to wear out, exhaust with fatigue. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 371. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).

haught, lofty, haughty. Richard III, ii. 3. 28; Marlowe, Edw. II, iii. 2 (Baldock); haulte, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 2, § 1; ch. 5, § 2; haut, high-sounding, ‘The haut Castilian tongue’, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Pedro). OF. haut, halt, high.

haulse; see [halse].

haulte; see [haught].

haunt, to practise habitually. Tusser, Husbandry, § 67 (ed. 1878, p. 155). In ME. ‘to haunt’, reflex., was used in the sense of ‘to accustom’ or ‘exercise oneself’, ‘Haunte thi silf to pitee’ (Wyclif, 1 Tim. iv. 7). Norm. F. hanter, ‘aller habituellement en un lieu’ (Moisy). Icel. heimta, to bring home the sheep in autumn from the summer pastures; see Icel. Dict. (s.v. ii. 3). Cp. the use of the verb ‘to haunt’ in the New Forest, to accustom cattle to repair to a certain spot, see EDD. (s.v. Haunt, 4).

hause, to embrace; ‘I will say nothing of hausing and kissing’, Bernard, tr. of Terence, Heauton, v. 1 (NED.). A north-country pronunciation; see EDD. (s.v. Halse, 9). See [halse].

†hauster, gullet (?); ‘Crack in thy throat and hauster too’, Grim the Collier, iv. 1 (Grim).

haut; see [haught].

hauzen, to embrace. Peele, Hon. Order of the Garter, l. 5, ed. Dyce, p. 585. See [hause].

havell, a low fellow; a term of reproach. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte, 94, 604. Also spelt hawvel (NED.). Origin of the word unknown.

having, possession, property. Merry Wives, iii. 2. 73; Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 379. Havings, pl. wealth; Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, ii. 4 (Asotus). ‘Havings’, possessions, still in use in Yorks. (EDD.).

haviour, possession, wealth; havoir, Holland, Livy, xxiii. 41; havour, Warner, Albion’s England, xvi. 164; ‘Havoire, possession.’ ME. havure, or havynge of catel or oþer goodys, ‘averium’ (Prompt.). Anglo-F. aveir, property (Moisy); avoir, property, goods (Gower).

haviour, ‘behaviour’; ‘Her heavenly haveour’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 66; Merry Wives, i. 3. 86; Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 226. See Dict. (s.v. Behaviour).

havok: phr. to cry havok, to give the signal for the pillage of a captured town; ‘They . . . did do crye hauok upon all the tresours of Troyes’, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 175. 7; Jul. Caesar, iii. 1. 273. Anglo-F. crier havok (A.D. 1385), OF. crier havo (A.D. 1150), see NED. (s.v. Havoc).

hawdod, the corn bluebottle, Centaurea cyanus. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 20. 28; haudoddes, pl., id., § 20. 4. Cp. OE. hǣwe, blue (in Erfurt Gl. hāwi), see Oldest Eng. Texts, 596. See [hardocks].

hawker, to act as a hawker, to haggle. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 620.

hay: phr. to carry hay on one’s horn, to be mad or dangerous; from an ox apt to gore whose horns were bound about with hay; cp. Horace, Sat. i. 4. Herrick, Hesper. Oberon’s Pal., 176.

hay, hey, a hedge. Thersites, ed. Pollard, 1. 155; ‘A hay (implieth) a dead fence that may be made one yeere and pulled downe another’, Norden, Survey in Harrison’s England (NED.). In E. Anglia a ‘hey’ is the term used for a clipped quickset hedge. ME. hay, a hedge (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 54). OE. hege, ‘sepes’ (Ælfric); cp. OF. haie, hedge (Rom. Rose, 50).

hay, hey, a country-dance, of the nature of a reel; ‘The antic hay’, Marlowe, Edw. II, i. 1 (Gaveston); Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i (Henry); ‘Rounds and winding Heyes’, Davies, Orchestra, lxiv (Arber, Garner, v. 39).

hay, interj., a term in fencing. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 7 (Bobadil); a home-thrust, Romeo, ii. 4. 27. Ital. hai, thou hast (Florio); cp. L. habet; exclaimed when a gladiator was wounded.

hay-de-guy (-guise), a kind of ‘hay’ or dance. Heydeguyes, pl., Spenser, Shep. Kal., June, 27; ‘We nightly dance our hey-day-guise’, Robin Goodfellow, 102, in Percy’s Reliques (ed. 1887, iii. 204). In Somerset and Dorset the word is used for merriment, high spirits, rough play, see EDD. (s.v. Haydigees).

haye, a net for catching rabbits. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Surly); Two Angry Women, iv. 1. 14. Hay-net is still in use in Kent and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. hay, nete to take conyys, ‘cassis’ (Prompt. EETS. 211).

hay-ree, a carter’s cry in urging on his horses. Nash, Summer’s Last Will (Harvest), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 52. In prov. use in Derbyshire (EDD.). See [ha and ree].

hayte and ree, words used by a carter in urging on or directing his horses. Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, ii. 1 (Clown) (vol. ii, 384). In Yorkshire the carters say ‘hite’ and ‘ree’, as calls to the horse to turn to left or right, see EDD. (s.v. Hait). ‘Hait’ is in gen. prov. use in Scotland and England, as a call to urge horses or other animals to go on (id.). ME. hayt: ‘Hayt, Brok!, hayt, Scot!’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1543). Cp. Swed. dial. häjt, a cry to the ox or horse to turn to the left. Rietz (s.v. Hit).

haytye, defiance. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 301, 17 (rendering of ahatine in the F. text). F. aatie, ahatie, ‘haine, querelle, provocation, engagement, lutte’ (Partonop. de Blois, 9585), also aatine, ahatine, from ahatir (aatir), ‘se hâter, s’engager à un combat, accepter une provocation’ (Chron. des ducs de Normandie); see Ducange. Cp. s’ahastir, ‘se hâter’ (Moisy).

haze, for ha ’s = have us. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 4. 7; iv. 3 (Roister).

hazelwood. ‘Yea, hazelwood!’ (meaning, ‘why, of course!’), Gascoigne, in Hazlitt’s ed., ii. 23, 285. The exclamation implies that the information given is of a very simple description, and that the hearer knows a great deal more of the matter than the informant. In Chaucer’s Tr. and Cr. iii. 890, there occurs the fuller form, ‘Ye, haselwodes shaken’, i.e. Yea, hazelwoods shake (when the wind blows); in the same poem, v. 505, ‘Ye, haselwode!’.

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.’ Here hood, 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 between headless and heedless, 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. See [unhele].

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.¹ 1).

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). See [barley-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 called Hellewagen, 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.; ‘Heloe or helaw, 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. See [ellops].

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. See [harborough].

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; see [harriot].

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; see [hay].

heydeguyes; see [hay-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.). See [hay] (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. See [coppe].

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 find highte, pt. t. of hote, to promise (Tr. and Cr. v. 1636; C. T. E. 496); OE. hēht (hēt), pt. t. of hātan to promise, to bid, command. See [hot] ([hote]).

hight, pr. and pt. 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 find hight, ‘is called’, and ‘was called’ (Leg. G. W. 417, and 725). But we also find the regular form hatte for both pres. and pt. t. (Tr. and Cr. iii. 797; H. Fame, 1303). OE. hātte, is or was called, pr. and pt. t. of hātan. 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. Higra in 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.¹ 1). ME. hilde, to incline; heldyn, ‘inclino’ (Prompt.). OE. hieldan (late WS. hyldan, Kentish heldan), 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-, in himphamp, ‘een hinkend persoon’ (Boekenoogen).

hinch-boy; see [hench-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. of hīwan, 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, died B.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 form hippodame, Spenser was probably thinking of hippotame, 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 initial H is 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.¹ 5). 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 called Hob, see EDD. Hob is 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.¹ 1), 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, for hobbler, 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.¹ 4 (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.¹ 2 (2)). Prob. conn. with Low G. hokk (pl. hokken), a heap of sheaves (Berghaus). See [hooky].

Hock-day, the second Tuesday after Easter Sunday (NED.). Hock Monday, the Monday in ‘Hock-tide’; ‘Rec^d of the women upon Hoc Monday 5s. 2d.’, Churchwardens’ Accounts, Kingston-upon-Thames, ann. 1578, see Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 104; spelt Hough-munday, Arden of Feversham, iv. 3. 43. See NED. (s.v. Hock-day) and EDD. (s.v. Hock, sb.² 1 (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; spelt huddermudder, 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.¹ 4).

hokos pokos, a juggler. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Mirth). Cp. G. hokuspokus, jugglery; see Weigand and H. Paul.

Hole, the; See [counter] (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.’ See [basket].

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); here honniken is 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). See [hutch].

hoodman-blind, the game now called blind-man’s-buff. Hamlet, iii. 4. 77; hudman-blind, Merry Devil, i. 3. 52. From the hood used to blind the man. 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). See [hock-cart].

hoop, to shout with wonder. Hen. V, ii. 2. 108; to shout at with insult, Cor. iv. 5. 84. (Usually altered to whoop.) 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 (later houper).

hoove; see [hove].

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. See [horn-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. Used fig., ‘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. of hors.

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. See [corser].

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. of hit. 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. of hātan, to be called. See [hight].

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 is hight (hiȝt), hehte (in Layamon); OE. hēht (hēt), pt. t. of hātan, 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; see [Hock-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 solemnized sacramento 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; see [Owlglass].

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. See [rove].

hoyn, to grumble, grunt. Skelton, Against Ven. Tongues, 4. A Lincoln word, see EDD. (s.v. Hone, vb.² 1). 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.¹ 1), 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 Latin talus and 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; see [hodermoder].

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; see [hoddypeke].

hudman-blind; see [hoodman-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; hence huff-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) and nectar of 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 that hugger-mugger may be connected with the Anglo-Irish cugger-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 say hulver (= holly) is meant; but I think holly would 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.³ 1).

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; see [Duke 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.³ 11). 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 a hutch or chest. Milton, Comus, 719. See [hooch].

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. Dutch hyssen, ‘to hoise’ (Sewel). See Dict. (s.v. Hoist).

hydegy, a rustic dance. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 264; hydagy, id., xxvi. 206. See [hay-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.]

hyleg or hylech; ‘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.