Etymologically
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hot

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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
  • 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)