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heavy [heavy 词源字典]: heavy: [OE] From the prehistoric Germanic verb *khabjan ‘lift’ was derived the noun *khabiz ‘weight’. This in turn was the source of the adjective *khabiga- ‘weighty’, from which have come Dutch hevig and English heavy (the other Germanic languages once had related forms, but have long since abandoned them in favour of other ways of expressing ‘heaviness’).
=> heave[heavy etymology, heavy origin, 英语词源]
hectic: hectic: [14] The use of hectic for referring to ‘great haste or confusion’ is a surprisingly recent development, not recorded before the first decade of the 20th century. It originally meant in English ‘suffering from fever, particularly of the sort that characterizes tuberculosis or septicaemia’ (the metaphorical progression to ‘feverishly active’ is an obvious one). English acquired the word via Old French etique and late Latin hecticus from Greek hektikós, which meant literally ‘habitual’, and hence ‘suffering from a habitual or recurrent fever, consumptive’.

It was a derivative of héxis ‘condition, habit’, which in turn was formed from the verb ékhein ‘hold, be in a particular condition’, which has also given English epoch. (The original English form of the word was etik; hectic represents a 16th-century return to the Latin form.)
hedge: hedge: [OE] Hedge traces its ancestry back to a prehistoric Germanic *khag-, which also produced the haw of hawthorn and possibly haggard and quay too. From it was derived the West Germanic noun *khagjō, which has since become differentiated into German hecke, Dutch heg, and English hedge. The compound hedgehog, an allusion to the animal’s piglike nose, dates from the 15th century (porcupine, literally ‘pig spine’, conveys much the same idea).
=> haggard, hawthorn, quay
heel: heel: English has two separate words heel. The one that names the rear part of the foot [OE] comes ultimately from Germanic *khangkh-, which also produced English hock ‘quadruped’s joint corresponding to the human ankle’. From it was derived *khākhil-, source of Dutch hiel, Swedish häl, Danish hæl, and English heel. Heel ‘tilt, list’ [16] is probably descended from the Old English verb hieldan ‘incline’ (which survived dialectally into the 19th century), its -d mistaken as a past tense or past participle ending and removed to form a new infinitive. Hieldan itself came ultimately from the prehistoric Germanic adjective *khalthaz ‘inclined’.
=> hock
hefty: hefty: see heave
hegemony: hegemony: [16] Hegemony ‘dominating influence of one nation over another’ etymologically denotes ‘leadership’. It was borrowed from Greek hēgemoníā ‘authority, rule’, a derivative of the verb hegeisthai ‘lead’ (to which English seek is distantly related).
=> seek
height: height: [OE] Etymologically as well as semantically, height is the ‘condition of being high’. It was formed in prehistoric Germanic from *khaukh- (source of high) and *-ithā, an abstract noun suffix: combined, they came down to Old English as hēhthu. The change of final -th to -t seems to have begun in the 13th century. The spelling ei reflects the word’s pronunciation in Middle English times, when it rhymed approximately with modern English hate.
=> high
heinous: heinous: see hate
heist: heist: see hoist
helicopter: helicopter: [19] The term helicopter was coined in the mid-19th century from Greek hélix ‘spiral’ (source of English helix [16] and helical [17]) and Greek ptéron ‘wing’ (source of English pterodactyl and related to feather). The French were first in the field with hélicoptère, and the earliest record of the word in English, in 1861, was the barely anglicized helicoptere, but by the late 1880s the modern form helicopter was being used. (These 19th-century helicopters were of course a far cry from the present-day rotorblade- driven craft, which were introduced in the late 1930s; as their name suggests, they were lifted – or more usually not lifted – by rotating spiral-shaped aerofoils.)
=> feather, helical, helix, pterodactyl
heliotrope: heliotrope: [17] The heliotrope, a plant of the forget-me-not family, gets its name because its flowers always turn to face the sun (the word comes via Latin hēliotropium from Greek hēliotrópion, a compound formed from hélios ‘sun’ and -tropos ‘turning’ – as in English trophy and tropical – which designated such plants, and was also used for ‘sundial’).

In early times the word was applied to the ‘sunflower’, which has similar heliotactic habits and in Italian is called girasole (literally ‘turn-sun’), source of the Jerusalem in English Jerusalem artichoke. Another application of Greek hēliotrópion carried over into English was to a sort of green quartz which was believed to turn the sun’s rays blood-red if thrown into water.
=> trophy, tropical
hell: hell: [OE] Etymologically, hell is a ‘hidden place’. It goes back ultimately to Indo-European *kel- ‘cover, hide’, which was contributed an extraordinary number of words to English, including apocalypse, cell, cellar, conceal, helmet, hull ‘pod’, occult, and possibly colour and holster. Its Germanic descendant was *khel-, *khal-, whose derivatives included *khallō and *khaljō.

The first became modern English hall, the second modern English hell – so both hall and hell were originally ‘concealed or covered places’, although in very different ways: the hall with a roof, hell with at least six feet of earth. Related Germanic forms include German hölle, Dutch hel, and Swedish helvete (in which vete means ‘punishment’).
=> apocalypse, cell, conceal, hall, helmet, hull, occult
helmet: helmet: [15] A helmet is literally a ‘little protective hat’. The word was borrowed from Old French helmet, a diminutive form of helme ‘helmet’. This in turn was acquired by Old French from Germanic *khelmaz (source of English helm [OE]), which goes back ultimately to Indo-European *kel- ‘hide, cover’ (source of a wide range of English words, including apocalypse, cell, cellar, conceal, hall, hell, and occult).
=> hell, helm
help: help: [OE] Today, help is essentially a Germanic word. Related forms such as German helfen, Dutch helpen, Swedish hjälpa, and Danish hjælpe point to a Germanic ancestor *khelp-. But there is one clue – Lithuanian shélpti ‘help, support’ – that suggests that formerly it may have been much more widespread throughout the Indo-European languages, and came from an Indo-European source *kelp-.
hem: hem: [OE] If, as seems likely, hem is related to Old Frisian hemme ‘enclosed piece of land’, its underlying meaning would be ‘edge, border’. However, a link has also been suggested with Armenian kamel ‘press’.
hemp: hemp: [OE] Hemp is ultimately the same word as cannabis (as, bizarrely, is canvas, which was originally made from hemp). Both go back to a common ancestor which produced Persian kanab, Russian konóplya, Greek kánnabis (source of English cannabis), and a prehistoric Germanic *khanipiz or *khanapiz. From the latter are descended German hanf, Dutch hennep, Swedish hampa, Danish hamp, and English hemp.
=> cannabis
hen: hen: [OE] Etymologically, a hen is a ‘singing bird’. The word goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic *khanon ‘male fowl, cock’, which was related to the Latin verb canere ‘sing’ (source of English chant). In the West Germanic dialects a feminine form developed, *khannjō, which has become German henne, Dutch hen, Swedish höna, Danish høne, and English hen. (The original masculine form survives in German hahn, Dutch haan, and Swedish and Danish hane, but English has given it up – the Old English word was hana, and if it had survived to the present day it would probably be *hane.) The metaphorical extension of the term to any female bird took place in the 14th century.
=> chant
henchman: henchman: [14] Early spellings such as hengestman and henxstman suggest that this word is a compound of Old English hengest ‘stallion’ and man ‘man’. There are chronological difficulties, for hengest seems to have gone out of general use in the 13th century, and henchman is not recorded until the mid-14th century, but it seems highly likely nevertheless that the compound must originally have meant ‘horse servant, groom’.

The word hengest would no doubt have remained alive in popular consciousness as the name of the Jutish chieftain Hengist who conquered Kent in the 5th century with his brother Horsa; it is related to modern German hengst ‘stallion’, and goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Indo-European kənku-, which denoted ‘jump’. Henchman remained in use for ‘squire’ or ‘page’ until the 17th century, but then seems to have drifted out of use, and it was Sir Walter Scott who revived it in the early 19th century, in the sense ‘trusty right-hand man’.
her: her: [OE] Her is the modern English descendant of Old English hire, a derivative of the same Germanic base, *khi-, as produced he. It was the genitive and dative case of the feminine personal pronoun: the former, which we would now express as of her, has become the possessive adjective, as in ‘her job’, and the latter is now the object form, as in ‘follow her’. The possessive pronoun hers dates from the 14th century.
=> he
herald: herald: [14] Etymologically, a herald is a ‘leader of an army’. The word comes via Old French herault from a prehistoric Germanic *khariwald-, a compound formed from *kharjaz ‘army’ (which occurs also in English harangue, harbinger, harbour, harness, and harry) and *wald- ‘rule’ (source of English wield). It is identical in origin with the personal name Harold.
=> harangue, harbinger, harbour, harness, harry, wield