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hex

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English has two main words spelled hex: a verb and noun of witchcraft, borrowed from Pennsylvania German in the 19th century, and a computing word, a shortening of hexadecimal from the 1970s.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

hex1 to bewitch; a spell

Etymology

The verb meaning to bewitch is borrowed from Pennsylvania German hexe (“to practise witchcraft”),[1][6][7][2][8] from German hexen (“to bewitch”),[1][6][9] which is related to Hexe (“witch”).[6][7] The German noun goes back to Middle High German hecse, also hexse,[6][9] from Old High German hagazussa, which the American Heritage Dictionary gives as hagzissa;[6][9] it is related to English hag.[1][7][3] Wiktionary compares Dutch heks (“witch”), beheksen (“to bewitch”) and Old English hægtesse (“witch, hag”).[5] Merriam-Webster derives the transitive verb from the compound verhexe, formed with ver-, the counterpart of English for-.[2] The noun, first meaning a witch, is likewise from Pennsylvania German, after the German noun.[1][10][8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To practise witchcraft: 1830, in J. F. Watson's Annals of Philadelphia,[1][2] an American word, as Barnhart and Etymonline note.[7][6] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1820–30.[11]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed chiefly North American.[10][4] The verb was first intransitive, to practise witchcraft, and then also transitive, to bewitch or put a spell on someone;[1][2] the Shorter Oxford dates the transitive use only to the mid 20th century.[10] The noun at first meant a witch (1856), also a woman who looks like one; the sense "magic spell, curse" is recorded from 1909, in the Saturday Evening Post.[1][6][7] Today the noun usually means a spell that brings bad luck, or something or someone that does,[9][2] and the verb has the weakened sense of bringing or wishing bad luck on something.[9]

Timeline

  • 1830 – to practise witchcraft; also to bewitch.[1][7][2]
  • 1856 – noun, a witch.[1][7][6]
  • 1909 – noun, a magic spell or curse.[1][7][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To put a spell on; to bewitch: The old farmer was said to have hexed his rival's well.[3][2][1]
  2. To bring or wish bad luck on: A string of rainy weekends seemed to hex the fair.[9]
  3. To practise witchcraft.[2][1]

Noun

  1. An evil spell; a curse or jinx: She joked that someone had put a hex on her car.[9][3][2]
  2. A person or thing that brings bad luck.[9]
  3. A witch.[3][1][4]

Word family

  • hexer
  • dehex
  • hex sign

hex2 hexadecimal

Etymology

The computing word is a clipping from English hexadecimal,[1][2][3][4][10] which is formed from English hexa- + decimal.[6] Merriam-Webster takes hexadecimal as an alteration of sexadecimal under the influence of hexa-.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hexadecimal, as a noun or adjective: Merriam-Webster dates this use to 1970,[2] the OED to 1975, in the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin.[1]

Semantic evolution

Hexadecimal itself is older: the adjective is recorded from 1954 (Etymonline gives 1952) and the noun, the hexadecimal system, from 1970.[1][6] The short form is used both as a noun and before another noun, as in hex code.[3][1]

Timeline

  • 1970 – hexadecimal notation.[2] The OED's first quotation is from 1975.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Hexadecimal notation, the number system with base 16: The address is written in hex.[3][2][1]

Adjective

  1. Written in or using hexadecimal notation: a hex value.[3][4][1]
  • hag
  • hexadecimal
  • hexa-
  • hexagonal

Usage notes

Several minor words are spelled the same way: hex as short for hexagonal, as in a hex head bolt, recorded from 1924;[2] in nuclear physics, hex for uranium hexafluoride, from 1956;[1][10] and in rock climbing a hex, a six-sided metal nut, short for the trade name Hexentric, from 1982.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House