Etymologically
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head

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hed, earlier heved and hevod (1123),[2][3] inherited from Old English hēafod,[4][5] from Proto-Germanic *haubid.[4] Its cognates are Old Frisian hāved, Old Saxon hōbid, Dutch hoofd, Old High German houbit (modern German Haupt), Old Norse hǫfuð and Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌸 (haubiþ).[2][6] Etymonline and the AHD derive it from Proto-Indo-European *kaput- (“head”), the source of Latin caput (“head”) and so of capital.[4][7][3] The match is not exact, because the English and German words point to Germanic -au- while the Norse and Latin ones point to -a-, and Hoad and the SOED call the relation unclear.[2][8][6] The spelling head, first recorded about 1420, kept the long vowel of the time, as in heat, after the pronunciation had shortened.[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The top of the body: Old English hēafod is recorded about 725, and by about 897 it also meant a chief person, leader or ruler.[2] It could also mean the upper end of a slope and a capital city.[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “source of a river” is mid-14th century and “rounded top of a plant” late 14th.[4] Head is used of people as counted (head count) by the late 13th century and of cattle from the 1510s.[4] The side of a coin with the portrait has been the head since the 1680s,[4] the froth on beer since the 1540s,[4] and a ship's toilet since 1748, from the crew's toilet in the bows.[4] A drug user is a head, usually in compounds, from 1911.[4] Phrases include put heads together (late 14th century),[4] over one's head “beyond one's understanding” (1620s),[4] and head over heels, a late-17th-century reversal of the earlier and more logical heels over head.[9] Heads will roll (1930) translates a remark of Adolf Hitler.[4] The verb first meant “to behead” (Old English hēafdian),[4] then “to be at the head, lead” (about 1200) and “to turn in a direction” (about 1600),[4] and head up “to direct” is from 1930.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English hēafod.[2]
  • c. 897 – a chief person, leader.[2]
  • 1123 – hevod.[2]
  • c. 1200 – verb, to be at the head, lead.[4]
  • late 13th century – a person, as counted.[4]
  • c. 1300 – as a measure of height.[4]
  • mid-14th century – the source of a river.[4]
  • late 14th century – put heads together.[4]
  • c. 1420 – the spelling head.[2]
  • 1510s – of cattle, counted by the head.[4]
  • 1540s – the froth on beer.[4]
  • c. 1600 – verb, to turn in a direction.[4]
  • 1680s – the obverse of a coin.[4]
  • 1748 – a ship's toilet.[4]
  • 1911 – a drug user.[4]
  • 1930 – head up, to direct, and heads will roll.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The upper or front part of the body, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
  2. The mind or intelligence: a good head for figures.
  3. A person in charge; a leader: head of state.
  4. The top or front part of something, such as the striking part of a tool.
  5. A person or animal as counted: ten head of cattle.
  6. The froth on top of beer.
  7. The side of a coin bearing a portrait.
  8. The source of a river.
  9. (slang) A habitual drug user.
  10. (nautical) A toilet.

Adjective

  1. Chief, foremost in rank: head gardener.

Verb

  1. To be in charge of; lead.
  2. To be first in: headed the list.
  3. To go in a particular direction: head for home.
  4. To hit (a ball) with the head.
  5. Of a river, to rise.

Word family

  • headlike
  • behead
  • head off
  • ahead
  • knucklehead
  • railhead
  • capital
  • heady
  • headache

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press