hot

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /hɒt/, US /hɑːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hot, inherited from Old English hāt (“hot, fervent, fierce”),^[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *haitaz.^[4][2] Its cognates include Old Saxon hēt, Dutch heet, German heiß and Old Norse heitr,^[3][2][5] and Gothic has heito “heat of a fever”.^[2][3][6] It is of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Lithuanian kaisti (“to grow hot”),^[2][7][8] and Etymonline suggests that both may be from a substrate word.^[2] It is related to heat.^[3][9] The Middle English vowel was long, rhyming with boat, and shortened in modern English, perhaps under the influence of the comparative hotter.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having a high temperature, and also fervent, fierce or excited: Old English hāt, recorded in 971,^[3] with the OED's earliest quotations from about 1000.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Hot as “full of sexual desire” is from about 1500,^[2] and Word Origins notes that the word has described sexual arousal since the Middle Ages.^[9] Of news, “fresh, sensational”, it is from 1569.^[11] The taste sense “pungent, spicy” is from the 1540s.^[2] In hunting, a hot scent is from 1595,^[11] the source of hot and cold in children's guessing games.^[2] “At a high voltage, live” is from 1925.^[10] The sense “exciting, very good” is from 1895, hot stuff by 1889, and the jazz sense from 1924.^[2] Of stolen goods, “easily identified and hard to dispose of”, it is first recorded in 1925^[2] or 1873,^[11] and “radioactive” is from 1942.^[2] Sexually attractive is from 1926.^[11] The hots, “strong sexual desire”, is from 1940.^[9] The verb hot up is from 1909.^[10]

Timeline

• 971 – Old English hāt.^[3]
• c. 1500 – lustful.^[2]
• 1540s – pungent.^[2]
• 1569 – of news, fresh.^[11]
• 1895 – exciting, very good.^[2]
• 1909 – verb, hot up.^[10]
• 1924 – of jazz.^[2]
• 1925 – stolen; at a high voltage.^[2][10]
• 1940 – the hots.^[9]
• 1942 – radioactive.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Having a high temperature; giving off heat.
2. Warmer than normal or desirable; feeling heat.
3. Causing a burning taste; spicy.
4. Charged with electricity; radioactive.
5. Marked by intense feeling; passionate, angry or lustful.
6. (informal) Fresh, recent; very popular or successful.
7. (slang) Stolen and easily identified.

Adverb

1. In a hot manner; hotly.

Verb

1. To make or become more intense or exciting: hot up.

Noun

1. the hots (slang) Strong sexual desire.

Word family

• hotness
• hottish
• hotly

Related words

• heat
• hotbed
• hot dog
• hotshot

Usage notes

An unrelated northern and Scots dialect word hot, a basket for carrying earth or dung, is from Old French hotte.^[5][12][10]

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 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ 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)