Etymologically
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high

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English heigh, hegh, hygh,[3][4] inherited from Old English hēah (“of great height, lofty, exalted”), Anglian hēh,[5][3] from Proto-Germanic *hauhaz.[3][6] It is related to Dutch hoog, German hoch, Old Norse hár and Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃 (hauhs, “high”), and to German Hügel (“hill”) and Old Norse haugr (“mound”).[5][7] The group is of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Lithuanian kaukaras (“hill”), from Proto-Indo-European *kouko-.[5][8][6] The spelling with gh represents a final guttural sound that was lost in the 14th century.[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of great height, tall; lofty, exalted (Old English, about 825).[9][10][5]

Semantic evolution

From the physical sense came early figurative ones: of roads, “most frequented, main” (about 1200), of persons “proud, haughty” (about 1200, as in high horse and high-handed), and of crimes or punishments “grave, severe” (about 1200, as in high treason).[5] High noon, the sun at its height, is from the early 14th century, where the sense is “full, complete”;[5] high time is from the late 14th.[5] Of sound pitch the word dates from the late 14th century, and of prices from 1542.[5][11] The sense “excited by drink” is first attested in 1627;[12][13][14] of drugs it is recorded from the early 1930s.[9][13][5] The biological sense “advanced”, as in the higher apes, dates from 1848.[3] The noun, a high point, is recorded before 1325;[3] its other senses are American: an area of high pressure (1878), a record level (1926) and a euphoric state (1953).[9][5] High school, a school for advanced studies, appears in Scotland in the late 15th century and in the United States by 1824.[5][3]

Timeline

  • c. 825 – Old English hēh, hēah.[9]
  • c. 1200 – of roads, main; proud; grave (high treason).[5]
  • c. 1303 – hygh, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.[9]
  • early 14th century – high noon.[5]
  • late 14th century – of sound pitch, and high time.[5]
  • 1542 – of prices.[11]
  • 1627 – excited by drink.[12][13]
  • 1831 – high tea.[5]
  • 1848 – advanced in development (biology).[3]
  • 1878 – noun, an area of high barometric pressure.[3][5]
  • 1932 – under the influence of drugs.[5][9]
  • 1953 – noun, a drug-induced euphoria.[3][5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Extending far upward; tall or lofty; of a specified height: ten feet high.
  2. Situated far above the ground or a base level.
  3. Great in amount, degree, force or value: high prices or high speed.
  4. Great in rank, status or importance; morally or culturally superior.
  5. At or near its peak: high summer.
  6. Of a sound, raised in pitch.
  7. (informal) Intoxicated by drugs or alcohol; elated.
  8. Of meat, slightly tainted, as game is when hung.

Adverb

  1. At or to a high position, level or degree.
  2. Luxuriously: live high.

Noun

  1. A high point or level; a record: sales reached a new high.
  2. An area of high atmospheric pressure; an anticyclone.
  3. A state of euphoria, induced by or as if by a drug.
  4. (on high) The sky or heaven.

Word family

  • highly
  • height
  • highland
  • highway
  • hie

Usage notes

High is the most general word for great upward extent;[15] tall is used of what has great height relative to its breadth, especially living things, and lofty of imposing height.[15][4] The adverb high (hung high on the wall) is distinct from highly (highly esteemed).[2]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
  14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin