Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/169

---

heute, adv., ‘to-day,’ from the equiv. MidHG. hiute, OHG. hiutu; comp. OSax. hiudu, hiudiga (whence AS. heódœg), OFris. hiudega, ‘to-day’; a West Teut. adv. for Goth. *hiô daga, ‘on this day,’ with the accent on the pron., which resulted in the combination of the two words. In the same way *hiutagu became hiutgu, hiuttu, and was finally shortened into hiutu (comp. the similar origin of heuer). Farther, Lat. ho-die and Gr. σ-ήμερον are similarly compounded. Likewise for heute Nacht, ‘to-night,’ OHG. and MidHG. had a parallel adv.; comp. OHG. hî-naht (MidHG. hînet), ‘to-night’ (in Bav. and Suab. heint is used for ‘to-day’). The pronom. stem hi- contained in it appears in Goth. in a few cases, and indeed as a temporal pron., ‘this’; comp. himma daga, ‘to-day,’ and hina dag, ‘until to-day,’ &c. In the Sax. dials. this pronom. stem, which corresponds to Lat. ci- in ci-s, ci-tra, appears as a 3rd pers. pron.; comp. E. he, AS. hê, E. him, AS. him (Goth. himma), &c., OSax. and LG. hê, ‘he.’ See further her, hier.

Hexe, f., ‘witch, hag, sorceress,’ from MidHG. hęcse, f., OHG. hagzissa, hagazussa, hagzus (also hâzus, hâzissa), f., a gloss for furia, striga, eumenis, erinnys; comp. MidDu. haghetisse, ModDu. heks, AS. hœgtesse, f., E. (with the rejection of the apparent termination) hag. The word, which is doubtlessly a compound, has not yet been satisfactorily explained; OHG. hag, AS. hœg, ‘hedge, wood,’ as the first component, seems indubitable. The second part has not been elucidated; some suppose that the prim. meaning of Hexe is ‘forest woman or demon’?. Comp. OHG. holzmuoja, MidHG. holzmuoje, f., ‘forest woman, witch’ (also ‘wood-owl’).

Hieb, m., ‘cut, stroke, blow; sarcasm,’ first recorded in the 17th cent., being recently formed from hauen, pret. hieb, hieben; comp. Handel from handeln and Hetze from hetzen. —

Hief, see Hifthorn.

hier, also hie, adv., from the equiv. MidHG. hier, hie, OHG. hiar, ‘here’; comp. Goth., OIc., AS., and OSax. hêr, equiv. to E. here. Allied to hi- (see heute)?.

Hifthorn, also Hüfthorn (a corruption due to the fact that the horn was carried attached to a belt around the waist — ‘Hüfte’), ‘hunting-horn,’ ModHG. simply; the earliest ModHG. form is Hiefhorn; Hief, also Hift, ‘the blast from a hunter’s

horn.’ Allied to Goth. hiufan, AS. heófan, OHG. hiufan, ‘to wail, howl’?.

Hilfe, f., from the equiv. MidHG. hilfe, hëlfe, f., OHG. hilfa, hëlfa, f., ‘help, aid’ (Goth. *hilpi and *hilpa, f.). Comp. helfen.

Himbeere, f., ‘raspberry,’ rom the equiv. MidHG. hintbęr, n., OHG. hint-bęri, n.; lit. ‘hind-, doe-berry.’ With regard to ModHG. Himbeere, with a distinct second component (in MidHG., however, hemper, from hintbere, according to strict phonetic laws), see ModHG. Wimper, from wintbrâ. In AS. hindberie, f., means ‘strawberry’ and ‘raspberry’; comp. E. dial. hindberries, ‘raspberries’ (note too AS. hindhœ̂leþe, ‘ambrosia,’ MidHG. hirz-wurz, AS. heortclœ̂fre, ‘camedus,’ prop. ‘hemp agrimony’). In earlier ModHG. there existed a term Hind-läufte, from MidHG. hintlouf, ‘a plant growing on the hind's track,’ i.e., along forest paths, which was applied to the common chicory.

Himmel, m., ‘heaven, sky, canopy, clime,’ from the equiv. MidHG. himel, OHG. himil (OBav. humil, m.; comp. OSax. himil, Fris. himul, Du. hemel, Swed. and Dan. himmel; the derivative l is the result of differentiation from an earlier derivative n, formed like Goth. himins, OIc. himenn, with which the Sax. forms with f for m are connected; AS. heofon, m., E. heaven, OSax. heƀan, m., ModLG. heven. These forms are based upon a common Teut. hemono- (humeno-); on account of its derivative suffix, note too Gr. οὐρανό. The ModHG. sense, ‘sky’ is current in all the Teut. dials.; the word is probably connected with the OTeut. stem ham, ‘to cover, veil,’ mentioned under hämisch, Hemd, and Leichnam. OHG. himil has also the meaning ‘ceiling,’ especially in the OHG. derivative himilizzi, ModHG. himelze, a fact which supports the last assumption; comp. AS. hûsheofon, Du. hemel, MidLG. hemelte, ‘roof.’ The etymology of Himmel (Goth. himins), based upon OSlov. kamy, Lith. akmŭ, ‘stone,’ as well as upon Sans. açmâ, ‘stone, (the stone-roofed) vault of heaven,’ and Gr. κάμινος, ‘oven,’ are not satisfactory, since the word probably denoted the ‘covering of the earth’ originally.

hin, adv., ‘hence, that way,’ from MidHG. hin, hine, OHG. hina, adv., ‘off, away’; AS. hina (hin- in compounds, e.g., hinsîþ, ‘departure, death’), adv. ‘away,’ allied to the pronom. stem hi- discussed under heute.