Hallelujah. From the Hebrew halelu, “praise ye,” and Iah, “Jehovah.”
Hallelujah Victory. That gained by the newly baptised Bretons under Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, in 429. As they marched to the attack they cried “Hallelujah!”
Hall Mark. The test mark of Goldsmiths’ Hall stamped upon gold and silver plate as a guarantee of its purity.
Hamiltonian System. A novel method of teaching languages, invented by James Hamilton, a merchant, whose death took place at Dublin, 1831. The peculiarity of this system was that it dispensed with the initiatory grammatical stages.
Hamilton Place. After Colonel James Hamilton, Ranger of Hyde Park, temp. Charles II.
Hammer and Scourge of England. The sobriquet of Sir William Wallace, the Scottish warrior patriot.
Hammer and Tongs. A corruption of “Hammer and Tongues.” A wordy warfare is well described as a hammering of tongues; hence the saying: “They went at it hammer and tongs” (tongues).
Hammer-cloth. It has been suggested that this is the covering for the box-seat of a coach that contained the hammer, bolts, nails, etc., useful to remedy a breakdown on a journey. The true meaning of the term is, however, that it is properly “Hammock-cloth,” the driver’s seat being formed of stout straps or webbing stretched upon crutches, after the fashion of a sailor’s hammock.
Hammered. A stockbroker is said to be “hammered” when he is driven out of the Stock Exchange on account of his failure to meet his liabilities.
Hammersmith. Originally Hammerschmiede, literally Saxon for blacksmith’s shop. In the early periods of its history this village had a great number of smithies.