hatch

hatch¹ opening

Etymology

The opening is inherited from Middle English hacche, inherited from Old English hæc (“fence, grating, gate”), with the genitive hæcce,^[4][3][6] from Proto-Germanic *hak-, a base of uncertain origin.^[4][3][6] It is cognate with Middle Low German heck (“fence”), Middle Dutch hecke (“hatch, grating”) and Dutch hek (“fence, gate”).^[3][6][7] The OED thinks it probably shares a Germanic base with hake (“a hook”), the first sense being something hung on a hook.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, a half-door or gate with an open space above it, first found in charter boundaries;^[8] Barnhart gives the year 1015.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English hacche (about 1250) it was a half-door, a small door, a gate or a wicket.^[3] An opening in a wall for passing food and drink, the later serving hatch, is recorded from 1351.^[8] The nautical sense began with the planks of a ship's deck, found in Anglo-Latin in 1233–34 and in Middle English hacchenayl (1294–96),^[3] and moved on to a trapdoor over an opening in the deck (about 1440) and to the opening itself, the hatchway (1658).^[8] The drinking toast down the hatch, with the hatch as the throat, is recorded from 1918 in the OED and by 1931 in Etymonline.^[8][4] The gate sense was once much commoner, as place names show: Colney Hatch was one of the entrances to Enfield Chase,^[9] and the word lies behind many people named Hatcher, "one who lives near a gate".^[4] In the dialects of Scotland and England a hatch was still a door filling only the lower half of the doorway, in Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.^[10]

Timeline

• 1015 – Old English hæc, a half-door or gate.^[3]
• 1233–34 – the planks of a ship's deck, in Anglo-Latin.^[3]
• 1351 – an opening for passing food or drink.^[8]
• c. 1440 – a trapdoor over an opening in a deck.^[8]
• 1658 – the opening in a deck, a hatchway.^[8]
• 1918 – down the hatch.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An opening in a ship's deck, or in a floor, roof or wall, or the cover that closes it; a hatchway.
2. A small door or opening, as in an aircraft or spacecraft.
3. A floodgate.
4. (obsolete) The lower half of a divided door.
5. down the hatch: a toast said before drinking.

Word family

• hatchway
• hatchback

hatch² bring young out of eggs

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English hacchen,^[4][2][1] probably from an unrecorded inherited from Old English *hæccan, of unknown origin.^[4][3][8][6] It is related to Middle High German hecken (“to breed, to mate of birds”), whence German hecken, and to Swedish häcka and Danish hække (“to hatch”).^[3][6][4] The OED and Klein also connect it with hagen (“a breeding bull”) and Old High German hegathruosa (“testicles”).^[8][7] Weekley thought it might somehow be connected with the noun for an opening, although the early history of both is obscure.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a bird, to sit on eggs, to brood: about 1275, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[8] Barnhart dates hachen to before 1250 and Etymonline to the early 13th century.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The causative sense, to make an egg open or bring young out of it, appears in the Wycliffite Bible (before 1382) and in Trevisa (before 1398);^[8] Etymonline dates both "to come forth from an egg" and "to cause to come forth" to the late 14th century.^[4] An egg itself is said to hatch from 1547, and a young bird from 1577.^[8] The figurative use, of bringing something into being, came early (before 1350),^[8][4] and the sense of devising a plan, often in secret, dates from 1565.^[8] The Middle English spelling hachen became hatch in the 16th century, following the pronunciation.^[3] The noun, the act of hatching, is found in Shakespeare's 2 Henry IV,^[3][8] and a brood of young from 1622.^[8] In Irish English the verb could also mean to brood over something, to sulk.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1250 – hachen, to produce young from eggs.^[3][4]
• c. 1275 – of a bird, to brood.^[8]
• before 1350 – to bring into being.^[8]
• before 1382 – to make an egg hatch.^[8]
• 1547 – of an egg, to open.^[8]
• 1565 – to devise a plan or plot.^[8]
• 1597 – the noun, in Shakespeare's 2 Henry IV.^[3]
• 1880 – hatchery.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. Of a young bird, reptile or insect, to come out of the egg; of an egg, to break open and let the young out.
2. To incubate eggs, or to bring young out of them by natural or artificial warmth.
3. To think up a plan or plot, especially in secret.

Noun

1. The act of hatching; the young hatched at one time, a brood.
2. A mass emergence of winged insects from the water.

Word family

• hatchery
• hatchling
• hatcher
• hatchable
• hatchability

hatch³ draw fine lines

Etymology

The verb for drawing lines is borrowed from Old French hacher (“to chop up; to hatch”), also spelled hachier,^[3][8][4][1] from hache (“axe”), the source of hatchet.^[3][6][4] In Anglo-Norman the verb meant to chop up or mince from the early 13th century, and its past participle also meant ornamented with inlaid lines.^[11] Its modern spelling follows that of the egg verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart finds it in 1389, in hachying, the carving or engraving of parallel lines as ornament.^[3] The OED's first example is from 1480: to inlay with narrow strips of a contrasting material.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From inlaying, the sense moved to cutting or drawing series of close parallel lines to give the effect of shading, from 1601, in Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny.^[8][6] The noun for one such line or stroke is recorded from about 1650,^[8] or 1658 according to Merriam-Webster.^[2]

Timeline

• 1389 – hachying, engraving of parallel lines.^[3]
• 1480 – to inlay with narrow strips.^[8]
• 1601 – to draw lines for shading.^[8]
• c. 1650 – the noun, a line used in shading.^[8][4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To mark a drawing or engraving with fine, closely spaced parallel lines, to show shading.
2. To inlay with narrow bands of another material.

Noun

1. One of the fine lines used for shading.

Word family

• crosshatch
• hatching