heyday

Etymology

Most dictionaries derive it from Middle English hey, the interjection, extended to an exclamation of playfulness, cheerfulness or surprise, heyda, recorded from 1526.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED takes the exclamation as apparently a compound of the interjection with a second element of doubtful origin that was later identified with day.^[7] The early form agrees with Low German heida (“hurrah”) and heidi,^[8][6][9] and with German heida (“hey there”);^[7][10] Etymonline also compares Dutch heidaar and Danish heida.^[3] Weekley compares the second syllable with that of French oui-da.^[11] The noun is from the exclamation according to the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English;^[12][13] the OED calls it of uncertain origin, perhaps connected with the exclamation, and finds that its second element was not at first the word day.^[7] Others explain the noun as “high day”: Klein suggests that it literally meant "high day",^[14] Dictionary.com takes it as a variant of “high day” confused with the exclamation,^[10] and Johnson (1755) already glossed the interjection "for high day".^[15] Weekley notes that hey was a common Middle English spelling of high and that the surname Heyday certainly comes from “high day”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

An exclamation of frolic, gaiety, surprise or wonder: as heyda in 1526,^[2][3] and as heyday before 1529, in John Skelton's Magnyfycence.^[7] The noun, a state of excitement or high spirits, is first recorded about 1590, in the play Sir Thomas More.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

The exclamation gave a noun meaning a state of high spirits or passion by the end of the 16th century,^[7][9][6] as in Hamlet's "the heyday in the blood".^[11][15] Johnson (1755) defined the interjection as an expression of frolic, exultation and sometimes wonder, and the noun as "a frolick; wildness".^[15] The modern sense, the period when something is at its height or in full bloom, appears in 1751, in Smollett's Peregrine Pickle;^[7][2][3] Ayto and the Word Origins dictionary put it down to the influence of the second syllable, falsely associated with day from the mid-18th century,^[6][9] and Etymonline suggests a notion that the word was high day, which also altered the spelling.^[3] An attributive use, belonging to the heyday of youth or to a festive day, is recorded from 1740.^[7] The exclamation and the sense "high spirits" are now archaic.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 1526 – heyda, an exclamation of playfulness or surprise.^[2][3]
• before 1529 – heyday, an exclamation of frolic, gaiety or wonder.^[7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1599.^[5]
• c. 1590 – noun, a state of excitement or high spirits.^[7][5]
• 1740 – attributive, of the heyday of youth or of a festive day.^[7]
• 1751 – the time of greatest vigour or prosperity.^[7][2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The time of greatest success, power, popularity or vigour; the prime: In its heyday the port handled half the country's trade.^{[16][5][12][7]}
2. (archaic) High spirits; frolicsomeness or wildness.^[5][12][15]

Interjection

1. (archaic) An exclamation of frolic, joy, surprise or wonder.^[5][7][15]

Related words

• hey
• high

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
15. ^ a b c d e Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins