Etymologically
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highland

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈhaɪ.lənd/, /ˈhaɪ.lɪnd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English hēahland (“high ground, mountainous country”), also spelled hēahlond,[2][3][4] a compound from Old English hēah (“high”) + land (“land”),[5][3][6] the ancestors of high and land.[5][6] The OED compares Old High German hōhlenti, and notes that in Old English the first part is sometimes inflected as a normal adjective.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

High ground, a high headland or mountainous country: in the Old English poem Exodus, where Abraham and Isaac climb the high ground.[2][5] The Shorter Oxford gives the original sense as a high headland or cliff,[6] and the Oxford Dictionary of English as a high promontory.[4]

Semantic evolution

The plural highlands, in the same sense, is recorded from about 1440, in the alliterative Morte Arthure.[5] The special sense, the Highlands, the mountainous region of Scotland to the north and west, is recorded in the OED from 1503,[5] while Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century.[3] The adjective, of the Scottish Highlands or their people, is recorded from 1450 in the records of the Scottish Parliament, and in the general sense of a highland or highlands from 1595.[5] The Highlands and Islands is recorded from 1765.[5] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "mountainous region".[7] Scots forms include hielan and hieland, and compounds such as Highland fling, a Highland step dance, and Highland passion, a violent but brief fit of anger.[8] In American slang the highlands has been the well-off parts of a town, where the rich lived on the higher ground, recorded in the 1960s.[9]

Timeline

  • Old English – high ground, in the poem Exodus.[5][2]
  • c. 1440 – plural highlands, mountainous country.[5]
  • 1450 – adjective, of the Scottish Highlands.[5]
  • 1503 – the Highlands, the mountainous region of Scotland.[5]
  • 1595 – adjective, of a highland in general.[5]
  • 1765 – the Highlands and Islands.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. High or mountainous land, often in the plural: the highlands of Ethiopia.
  2. the Highlands: the mountainous northern and western part of Scotland.
  3. Highland: a council area in northern Scotland, with its centre at Inverness.

Adjective

  1. Of, living in or growing in a highland: highland villages.
  2. Usually Highland: of or typical of the Scottish Highlands or their people.

Word family

  • Highlands
  • highlander
  • Highland fling

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  9. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com