Etymologically
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heat

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 16:57. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /hiːt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hete,[2][3] inherited from Old English hǣtu (“heat, warmth; fervor, ardor”), hǣto, also hǣte,[4][2][5] from West Germanic *haitīn, from Proto-Germanic *haitaz, the source of hāt, hot.[2][5][6] It is cognate with Old Frisian hēte and Old High German heizi, and by another vowel grade with Dutch hitte, German Hitze, Old Norse hiti and Gothic heitō “fever”.[2][4] The verb is Old English hǣtan, from the same root.[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of being hot: about 725 in Barnhart,[2] with the OED's first example from about 825.[7] Hot weather is also from about 825.[7] Old English hǣtu also meant “fervor, ardor”.[4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, “violent action, a single intense effort”, is from the late 14th century,[4] and a run given to a horse to prepare it for a race from the 1570s.[4] A single course in a race is from the 1660s, later a division of a contest with too many entrants to run at once, the winners meeting in a final.[4] Sexual excitement in female animals, as in on heat or in heat, is from 1768.[4] In physics, latent heat is from about 1757 and specific heat from before 1832.[7] “Trouble with the police” is slang by 1920.[4] Heat wave is from 1890 and heatstroke from 1858.[4] If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen is associated with Harry S. Truman, who used it in 1952, crediting Major General Harry Vaughan.[6] Bartlett (1848) reported that het, as the past tense of heat, was “often heard in the mouths of illiterate people”.[4][8]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English hǣtu.[2]
  • late 14th century – a single intense effort.[4]
  • 1570s – a run before a race.[4]
  • 1660s – a heat in a race.[4]
  • c. 1757 – latent heat.[7]
  • 1768 – of animals, sexual excitement.[4]
  • 1858 – heatstroke.[4]
  • 1890 – heat wave.[4]
  • 1920 – trouble with the police.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The quality of being hot; warmth or high temperature.
  2. (physics) A form of energy transferred between bodies because of a difference in temperature.
  3. Hot weather or conditions.
  4. Intensity of feeling; passion or anger: in the heat of the moment.
  5. A single round of a contest, the winners going on to the next round.
  6. A period of sexual readiness in female mammals; estrus.
  7. (slang) Pressure or trouble, especially from the police.

Verb

  1. To make or become hot or warm.
  2. To excite or inflame: a heated debate.

Word family

  • heatable
  • heatless
  • heatproof
  • heatful
  • heatlike
  • heater
  • overheat
  • preheat
  • hot
  • heated
  • heatwave

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford