heiß

Forms

heiß (strong nominative masculine singular heißer, comparative heißer, superlative am heißesten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German heiz, inherited from Old High German heiz, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hait, inherited from Proto-Germanic *haitaz (“hot”).^[2][1][3] The same word is Old Saxon hēt, Dutch heet, Old English hāt, whence hot, Old Frisian hēt, Old Norse heitr and Swedish het;^[2][4][5] Gothic has only the ablauting noun Gothic 𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍄𐍉 (heito, “fever”).^[2][4][5]

Kluge derives it from a d-extension of Proto-Indo-European *kai- (“to burn”), seen with a t-extension in Lithuanian kaĩsti (“to heat, become hot”) and without extension in Old High German gihei (“heat, drought”); it may be the same root as *kai- “to shine” (see heiter).^[2][4] The EWA describes the adjective as formed with a suffix to hei (“heat, blight”).^[6] Kroonen sees an o-grade adjective of a root *keid-, which implies an unrecorded strong verb, and finds no certain cognates outside Germanic.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German heiz appears in glosses from about the middle of the 9th century and in Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “hot, glowing, burning, fiery, violent”;^[6][7] heizêr tag was a hot summer day, and heiz wesan meant “to lie close to one's heart”.^[6][7] Compounds such as heizherzi are recorded as early as the 8th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Heiß and kalt are set against each other from Middle High German on.^[8] Figuratively the word describes strong feeling, as in Luther's heiße Tränen or the heißes Bemühn of Goethe's Faust.^[8] It also describes a pleasant warmth, as of a bath or soup in Stieler, and something new or current, and in sport a strong contender, as in heißer Favorit.^[8]

In the 20th century it took over several senses of English hot: of music “exciting”, of goods “stolen, illegal”, and of films or clothes “provocative”, and heißer Draht renders hot line.^[9][8] Heißhunger is a back-formation of the later 17th century from heißhungrig, and Heißsporn was A. W. Schlegel's rendering, in 1800, of Shakespeare's Hotspur.^[4]

Timeline

• 8th century – Compounds such as heizherzi are recorded.^[2]
• Mid-9th century – Old High German heiz appears in glosses.^[6]
• First half of the 17th century – heißhungrig is recorded.^[4]
• Second half of the 17th century – Heißhunger is formed from it.^[4]
• 1800 – Schlegel renders Hotspur as Heißsporn.^[4]
• 20th century – Senses borrowed from English hot appear.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very warm, of a high temperature; hot: Der Sand am Strand war glühend heiß.^[10][1]
2. Fierce, heated: ein heißer Streit um die Steuern.^[10]
3. Felt with great intensity; ardent: Sein heißester Traum ist ein eigenes Pferd.^[10]
4. Exciting, provocative: heiße Musik;^[10][9] ein heißes Kleid.^[10][9]
5. (colloquial) Dangerous, full of conflict: Das Thema ist politisch heiß.^[10]
6. (nuclear physics) Highly radioactive.^[10]
7. Of animals, in heat;^[1][11] (informal) of people, sexually aroused.^[1][11]

Word family

• Heißhunger
• Heißsporn
• brühheiß
• siedend heiß

Related words

• Hitze
• heizen
• heiter
• English hot

Usage notes

Es überläuft jemanden heiß und kalt means that someone shudders, and weder heiß noch kalt describes something unsatisfactorily half-hearted.^[10] Heiß auf etwas sein is colloquial for being keen on it.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 407
3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
6. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 915
7. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 146
8. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 363
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org