Etymologically
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hedge

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈhɛd͡ʒ/[1]

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

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