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English has three nouns and verbs spelled hide: to conceal (Old English hȳdan), the skin of an animal (Old English hȳd), and an old measure of land (Old English hīd).[1][2][3] The first two may share a root, but the land measure is unrelated.[3][1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /haɪd/[4]

hide1 conceal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hiden, inherited from Old English hȳdan (“to hide, conceal”),[3][1][2] from Proto-West Germanic *hūdijan,[3][2] also the source of Old Frisian hēda and Middle Dutch and Middle Low German hūden.[1][2] It is traced to Proto-Indo-European *keudh- (“to cover, hide”),[1][3] which is also seen in Greek keúthein “to conceal”, Sanskrit kuhara “cave” and Welsh cuddio “to hide”.[1][2][5] Etymonline places this under the root *(s)keu- “to cover, conceal”, which also gave the noun hide “skin”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To hide, conceal, also to hide oneself and to bury a body: before 899 in Barnhart, in Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.[1][3]

Semantic evolution

The core meaning has stayed the same since Old English.[6][3] To conceal in order to shield or protect was a sense from Middle English to the early 17th century.[6] The noun, a hiding place, appears in Middle English and was revived in modern use from 1649;[7] it now often means a shelter for watching wildlife.[6] Hide-and-seek is from 1672, in Dryden, replacing the earlier name all hid (1588).[1]

Timeline

  • a. 899 – to conceal.[1]
  • a. 1300 – noun, concealment.[7]
  • 1649 – noun, a hiding place.[7]
  • 1672 – hide-and-seek.[1]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To put or keep out of sight; to conceal.
  2. To keep secret or prevent from being known.
  3. To keep oneself out of sight, or to seek refuge.

Noun

  1. (chiefly British) A place of concealment, especially a shelter for watching birds or animals.

Word family

  • hidden
  • hideout
  • hiding

hide2 skin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hide, inherited from Old English hȳd (“skin, hide”),[3][1] from Proto-Germanic *hūdiz,[3][2] also the source of Old Frisian hēd, Old Saxon hūd, Dutch huid, Old Norse húð and German Haut “skin”.[3][1][2] It is from Proto-Indo-European *kut- (“skin”),[1][2] also the source of Latin cutis “skin” and Greek kýtos “hollow vessel”, and with s- Greek skýtos “skin, leather”.[1][5] It is related to cuticle and probably to the verb hide “to conceal”, the common notion being covering.[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The skin of an animal: 891 in Barnhart, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;[1] before 900 in the OED.[7] Human skin is also Old English.[7]

Semantic evolution

Used of people the word was once neutral, as German Haut still is, but since the 17th century it has been contemptuous or jocular.[7][9] Middle English paired it with hue (“complexion”) from about 1200, and the phrase hide nor hair is from the early 15th century.[3] The verb, to flay, is from 1757 and to thrash from 1825,[1] hence hiding “a beating” (19th century).[2] Impudence or nerve (1916) is chiefly Australian and New Zealand.[7][6] Hidebound (mid 16th century) first described cattle so ill-fed that their skin clung to their ribs.[8]

Timeline

  • 891 – an animal's skin.[1]
  • c. 1200 – hide ne hewe.[3]
  • early 15th century – hide nor hair.[3]
  • 1757 – verb, to flay.[1]
  • 1825 – verb, to thrash.[1]
  • 1916 – impudence.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The skin of an animal, especially a large one, raw or tanned.
  2. (informal) A person's skin, especially as something at risk: save one's hide.
  3. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) Impudence or nerve.

Verb

  1. (informal) To beat or flog.

Word family

  • hidebound
  • rawhide
  • cowhide

hide3 land

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English hīd, earlier hīġid, from hīw- “family, household”,[3][2][6] related to Old English hīwan “members of a household”,[2] Old High German hī- and Gothic heiwa-,[2] and to Latin cīvis “citizen”.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A measure of land: 848 in the OED.[7]

Semantic evolution

It was the land needed to support one free family and its dependants, usually 100 or 120 acres but sometimes as little as 60, depending on the soil;[3][6] it was rendered in Latin as familia.[3] It is now used only in history.[6]

Timeline

  • 848 – a measure of land.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (historical) An old English measure of land, enough to support a family, usually about 120 acres.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker