Halberd. From two Teutonic words, hild, battle, and bard, axe.
Halcyon Days. Days of peace and tranquillity. This was the name anciently given to the seven days before and after the shortest day, because, according to fable, there were always calms at sea during this period while the halcyon or kingfisher birds were breeding.
Half-and-half. Originally a mixture in equal proportions of strong ale and small beer. In modern days it consists of half ale and half porter. See “[Entire]” and “[Porter].”
Half Moon Street. After an ancient tavern, “The Half Moon,” which stood in this neighbourhood. This sign was derived from the crescent or ensign of the Turks.
Halfpenny. The original penny pieces were deeply indented crosswise, so that halfpennies and farthings (or fourthlings) could easily be broken off, as occasion demanded.
Half Seas Over. A nautical phrase applied to a drunken man staggering along, who is in danger of falling to the ground at any moment. When a ship has all her sails spread a sudden change in the direction of the wind often threatens to lay her on her side.
Halifax. A corruption of the Saxon “Haligfock,” from halig, holy, and fock, people. For what reason the inhabitants of this place were considered more saintly than people elsewhere local tradition does not say. Halifax in Nova Scotia was named, on the foundation of the city in 1749, by the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, after the Earl of Halifax.
Halifax Gibbet Law. An ancient enactment for the protection of the local woollen manufacture. Owing to the systematic theft by the employées in the trade of material supplied to them, it was found that the fabric lacked body and weight. To put a stop to this pilfering a law was passed, making the theft of anything whatsoever, to the value to thirteen pence halfpenny, subject to the death penalty. On conviction before a magistrate the thief was publicly executed on the next market day. The mode of execution was not by hanging, but by beheading, the instrument used being a kind of guillotine. Taylor, the Water Poet, speaks of this
“Jyn that wondrous quick and well,
Sends thieves all headless into heaven or hell.”