Hopkinsians. An American Calvinistic sect named after their founder, Samuel Hopkins of Connecticut.
Hornbill. A bird distinguished for a horny excrescence on its bill.
Horn Book. A primitive text-book for children. It was really no book at all, but a piece of paper containing the alphabet, the nine digits, and at times the Lord’s Prayer, mounted on a small flat board, over which was stretched a transparent sheet of horn; below was a handle to hold it by.
Hornpipe. A lively sailor’s dance, which had its origin in the west of England to the accompaniment of a Welsh musical instrument of the same name composed of a wooden pipe with a horn at each end.
Hornsey. A corruption of “Harringsey,” a watered meadow of hares.
Horse Chestnut. Some say this term is a corruption of “Coarse Chestnut,” in contradistinction to the edible chestnut; others that these chestnuts were formerly ground up and given to horses for food.
Horseferry Road. Where horses were conveyed across the Thames on a ferry boat in bygone times.
Horse Latitudes. A portion of the Atlantic distinguished for its tedious calms, where old navigators were wont to throw overboard the horses they had to transport to the West Indies in order to lighten the ship.
Horsleydown. A corruption of “Horsadown”; formerly a down or hilly ground used for grazing horses.
Horse Marines. There can be no Horse Marines; but the 17th Lancers were at one time made to bear this opprobrious nickname from the circumstance that two men of this regiment had originally served as Marines on board the Hermione in the West Indies.