hiss

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hissen,^[2][3][4] of imitative origin.^{[5][3][4][6][7][8]} The OED notes that it is not recorded before the end of the 14th century nor in the earlier stages of any Germanic language, and that a supposed Old English hysian is an error.^[5] Dictionary.com compares Old English hyscan (“to jeer at”).^[9] Similar imitative words are Danish hysse,^[6] German zischen,^[6][10][11] zispen and Old High German zispan;^[10] Kilian recorded hissen in early modern Flemish in 1599, but the word is not found in Middle Dutch or in the modern language, where the verb is sissen.^[5][2] Earlier Middle English had sissen for the sound of a snake, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart finds the verb implied in hissyng, hissing, in the Wycliffite Bible of about 1384;^[12] the Middle English Dictionary quotes Trevisa (before 1398) on a serpent that hisses before it bites,^[2] and the OED's first record is from Mandeville's Travels of about 1400, of a sharp sound like a prolonged s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the sound of snakes and geese the verb passed early to people: by the early 15th century, in the later Wycliffite Bible, one could hiss at someone in scorn.^[5][2] In Middle English it could also mean to whistle, or to call someone by whistling.^[2] From 1519 one could hiss a person off or away,^[5] and since 1598 hiss someone or a play to show disapproval.^[5] The noun followed in 1513, in Gavin Douglas's Æneid,^[5][12] and as a sound of scorn, especially in a theatre, from 1602.^[5][13] Johnson (1755) remarked that the word cannot be pronounced without making the noise it names.^[6] From 1775 the verb was used of saying something in an angry, hissing whisper.^[5] Phoneticians used hiss for a sibilant consonant from 1890,^[5] and in electronics it came to mean the background noise of a receiver.^[14][4]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – verb, implied in hissyng.^[12]
• c. 1400 – to make a sharp sibilant sound.^[5]
• before 1425 – to hiss at someone in disapproval.^[5]
• 1513 – noun, a hissing sound.^[5][12]
• 1519 – to drive away by hissing.^[5]
• 1598 – to hiss a person or performance.^[5]
• 1602 – noun, a hiss of disapproval.^[5]
• 1775 – to utter with a hiss.^[5]
• 1890 – in phonetics, a sibilant.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a sharp sound like a long s, as a snake, a goose or escaping steam does: The cat hissed at the puppy.^[4][5]
2. To make this sound to show disapproval or contempt; to hiss at: The crowd hissed when the referee walked out.^[4][5]
3. To show disapproval of someone by hissing; to drive off by hissing.^[4][5]
4. To say something in a sharp, angry whisper: “Get down,” she hissed.^[5][4]

Noun

1. A sharp sibilant sound like a long s: the hiss of the kettle.^[14][4][5]
2. Such a sound made to show disapproval or derision.^[14][5]
3. (electronics) Background noise in a receiver or recording, heard as a continuous hiss.^[14][4]

Interjection

1. An exclamation of derision or disapproval.^[14]

Word family

• hisser
• hissingly
• hissy
• outhiss
• unhissed

Related words

• hist
• hush

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins