hedge

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hegge,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English hecg,^[5][2][6][7] inherited from Proto-Germanic *hagjō.^{[8][9][10][11]} It is cognate with hegghe, heg, hegga and Hecke,^{[11][5][2][8]} and Barnhart and Klein add heggr (“bird cherry”).^[2][3][12] It is related to Old English haga (“enclosure, hedge”), the source of haw, and to hege, the source of the obsolete hay, a fence.^{[11][5][8][13]} Etymonline and Köbler trace it to the root Proto-Indo-European *kagh- (“to catch, seize; wickerwork, fence”), also the source of caulae (“sheepfold”) and cae (“field, hedge”).^[5][10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fence or boundary, originally of any kind, living or dead:^[5][14] Old English, in a charter of 785.^[11][2] Barnhart dates the Middle English form hegge to about 1250, in The Owl and the Nightingale, with the surname Hegge recorded from 1188.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, a barrier or means of defence, is recorded from 1340.^[11][5] Because hedges sheltered vagrants, the noun used before another noun meant mean, low or illiterate, as in hedge-priest and hedge-school;^[5][14][15] Johnson (1755) noted that, so prefixed, it marked "something mean, vile, of the lowest class".^[16] The verb, to make a hedge or surround with one, dates from the late 14th century.^[11][5] The sense "to avoid committing oneself" is from the 1590s, from the idea of hiding as if in a hedge,^[5] and the betting and financial sense, protecting oneself against loss by a transaction on the other side, from 1672, probably developed from to hedge in a debt by including it in a larger, better-secured one (1607).^[11][5][17] The noun in this sense is recorded from 1736,^[11][5] and to hedge one's bets from the late 17th century.^[17] In 19th-century criminal slang a hedge, like a fence, was a receiver of stolen goods.^[15]

Timeline

• 785 – Old English hecg, in a charter.^[11][2]
• c1250 – hegge, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[2]
• 1340 – a barrier, a defence.^[11]
• 1393 – verb, to make hedges, in Langland.^[11]
• 1590s – verb, to avoid committing oneself.^[5]
• 1672 – verb, to secure oneself against loss on a bet.^[11]
• 1736 – noun, the act or means of hedging.^[11]
• 1818 – (slang) a receiver of stolen goods.^[15]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A row of shrubs or low trees planted closely together to form a fence or boundary: A thick hawthorn hedge divided the two fields.
2. A barrier or means of protection against something.
3. A way of reducing the risk of loss on a bet or investment: Gold is often bought as a hedge against inflation.
4. A cautious or evasive statement.

Verb

1. To surround or separate with a hedge.
2. To hem in or restrict: Their freedom was hedged about with rules.
3. To avoid giving a clear answer or committing oneself.
4. To protect oneself against loss on a bet or investment by making balancing transactions.

Word family

• hedger
• hedgy
• hedgingly
• hedgeless
• hedgehog
• hedgehop
• hedgepig
• hedgerow

Related words

• haw
• hawthorn
• haggard

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press