hash

Pronunciation

• /ˈhæʃ/^[1]

hash¹ chopped food; mess

Etymology

The dish of chopped food is a noun formed from the verb meaning to chop,^[2][3][4][5] which is borrowed from Middle French hacher (“to cut into small pieces, chop up”),^[2][3][5][4] from Old French hache (“axe”), the source of hatchet.^[3][5][4] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the early 13th century, already meaning to chop up or mince.^[6] The French noun hache is of Germanic origin,^[7][8] perhaps from Frankish *happja,^[3][9] and is related to Old High German happa (“sickle, pruning knife”).^[8][3] Etymonline tentatively connects the Germanic word with Proto-Indo-European *kop- (“to beat, strike”), the root of Greek words for striking and cutting,^[3] and Merriam-Webster compares the Greek verb for to smite;^[8] Klein derives it from an Indo-European base meaning to cut.^[9] The English noun replaced the earlier hachy,^[4][2] and its first record (1653) follows French hachis;^[2][10] Barnhart dates the earlier form, as hache, to about 1330.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cut, slash or mangle: 1591–2, in the Scots poem Rob Stene's Dream.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to 1590, in the sense of chopping to pieces,^[8] and Etymonline to the 1650s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The cookery sense, to cut meat or food finely, is recorded from 1615,^[2] and the noun, a dish of chopped and usually previously cooked meat, from 1653, in a translation of La Varenne's French Cook;^[2] Pepys used it in 1662–3.^[2][11] The same year the noun was used of old material served up in a new form, which became rehash.^[2][4] From 1660 a hash was a jumble or mess, especially in to make a hash of;^[2][4] Etymonline dates "a mix, a mess" to 1735.^[3] Weekley compares to settle one's hash, recorded from 1795, with to cook one's goose.^[2][10] In American English hash became cheap food in general (1865),^[2] and to hash meant to work as a waiter in a café (1899–1900).^[12] In Scottish use a hash was also a clumsy or foolish person (1655),^[2][4] and the English Dialect Dictionary records a mess or muddle in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England, and in Northumberland a dish of minced sheep's lights.^[13] Hash browns (1926) are short for hashed browned potatoes (1886).^[3] Radio engineers called random noise in a signal hash from 1923,^[2] and programmers used the verb from 1966 for turning data into a fixed-length value by a hash function, a sense Etymonline dates to 1979.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1591 – to cut, hack, mangle (now Scottish and regional).^[2]
• 1615 – to chop meat or food finely.^[2]
• 1653 – a dish of chopped cooked meat; old material served up again.^[2]
• 1660 – a jumble, a mess;^[2] to make a hash of.^[2]
• 1795 – to settle someone's hash.^[2]
• 1865 – food in general, especially in a cheap restaurant (U.S.).^[2]
• 1886 – hashed browned potatoes, shortened by 1926 to hash browns.^[3]
• 1923 – radio interference.^[2]
• 1966 – computing, to hash data; the noun follows in 1967.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dish of chopped cooked meat, usually with potatoes, reheated or browned: corned beef hash.^[14][7][2]
2. A jumble or muddle; a mess, especially in make a hash of: He made a hash of the speech.^[14][7][2]
3. A reworking of old material; a rehash.^[14][7][2]
4. (computing) The value produced from data by a hash function.^[2]
5. settle someone's hash: to deal with someone decisively, or silence them.^[14][2]

Verb

1. To chop meat or vegetables into small pieces.^[14][7][2]
2. To make a mess of something; to mangle it.^[14][7][2]
3. hash out or hash over: to discuss something at length, or settle it by discussion: The partners hashed out a deal over lunch.^[7][15]
4. (computing) To convert data into a fixed-length value by a hash function.^[2]

Word family

• hash browns
• hash house
• hash-slinger
• hasher
• hashing
• rehash

hash² hashish

Etymology

The drug is a shortening of hashish,^{[2][3][11][4][8]} which English took in 1598 from Arabic, through Dutch and Latin travel writing, and whose Arabic source meant dry herbage or hay.^[2][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cannabis resin used as a drug: 1948, in A. Schwartz's Blowtop.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang has an American record from 1949,^[12] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1955,^[8] and Barnhart and Etymonline to 1959, in Norman Mailer's Advertisements for Myself.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

The word spread in American drug slang, used by Kerouac in a letter of 1955,^[12] and the Shorter Oxford labels it colloquial.^[4]

Timeline

• 1598 – hashish first recorded in English.^[2][3]
• 1948 – hash, cannabis resin.^[2]
• 1959 – in Norman Mailer.^[11][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) hashish, the resin of the cannabis plant used as a drug.^{[8][4][2][12]}

Word family

• hashhead

hash³ the sign #

Etymology

The sign # is probably a shortening of hash mark,^[2] which the OED takes as hatch, to mark with fine parallel lines, and mark, altered by association with the related verb meaning to chop.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary and the Concise Oxford likewise derive it from hatch in this sense, altered by folk etymology under the influence of the cookery word,^[7][15][17] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins traces it to the same use of hatch.^[16] Etymonline mentions the story that military service stripes counted years of free food (hash) from the army, but thinks a link with hatch possible.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The symbol #: 1967, in an annual report of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.^[2] The fuller hash mark is recorded in this sense from 1961.^[2] Word Origins dates the sign's name to the 1960s,^[16] while the Concise Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English give the 1980s.^[15][17]

Semantic evolution

Hash mark first meant a service stripe on an American military sleeve (1907), then any short tally line and the yard markers of an American football field (1948), before it was applied to the symbol.^[2][3][8] The short form also names the key bearing the sign on a keyboard or telephone keypad,^[2] and gave hashtag, first recorded in 2007.^[16]

Timeline

• 1907 – hash mark, a military service stripe.^[2][8]
• 1948 – hash mark, a short tally mark; a yard marker in American football.^[2]
• 1961 – hash mark, the symbol #.^[2]
• 1967 – hash, the symbol #.^[2]
• 2007 – hashtag.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The symbol #, or the key bearing it on a keyboard or telephone keypad.^[2][16]

Word family

• hashtag

Related words

• hatchet
• hatch
• hashish
• hash mark
• hachure

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c d e f Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press