hagridden by (a negative emotion) (set phrase) = harassed by (a negative emotion) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. After his girlfriend left him, he was hagridden by self-doubt
‘hagridden’ is a 17th-century word, a compound of ‘hag’: ‘witch’ + ‘ridden’: ‘oppressed’ (in the sense of ‘ridden upon’). The original meaning of ‘hagridden’ was ‘afflicted by nightmares’ and specifically referred to the condition doctors now label ‘sleep paralysis’.
‘Sleep paralysis’ is the sensation that occurs to someone who’s just about to fall asleep and is in that transitional state between wakefulness and slumber; it’s characteristed by complete muscle weakness (‘muscle atonia’ is the medical term), meaning the person afflicted is unable to move – despite being fully mentally alert – and there is an accompanying feeling of a heavy weight pinning the victim down against the bed; what’s more, in the background is the sense of a malevolent presence. This widely recognised medical condition afflicts people at a time of worry in their lives. ‘Hagridden’ is clearly an approximation of this feeling, with the expression evoking the image of a ‘hag’ – an evil and heavy force – ‘riding’ the victim, who is pinned to the bed as a result.
Today, if we say someone is ‘hagridden’ by a negative emotion, we mean they are very tormented by some mental anguish.
hara-kiri (set phrase) = elaborate suicide (pronounced ‘hahr-uh-keer-ee’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Once in a while, my laptop is prone to hara-kiri, necessitating a visit to the computer shop
‘hara-kiri’ is a Japanese word meaning ‘belly cutting’, deriving from ‘hara’: ‘belly’ + ‘kiri’: ‘cutting’ – and refers to a particularly convoluted form of suicide. This involves the suicide victim firstly cutting himself from left to right across the belly (causing disembowelment), followed by a helpful assistant delivering a killer blow and severing the victim’s head from the body.
Samurai – the military nobility in control of Japan until c. 1900 – would perform ‘hara-kiri’ in order to die with honour, rather than fall into the hands of their enemies. Before death, the fated man would be bathed, dressed in white robes and then have served to him his favourite meal; finally, he’d write a ‘death poem’ (a short poem where it was not done to refer to death directly, although metaphorical talk of ‘setting suns’ and ‘falling leaves’ was permitted). A crowd often watched, handily also acting as witness to the execution.
The practice all but died out at the end of the 19th century (as a result of the Samurai’s own demise), although once in a while someone resurrects it in Japan. For example, in 2001, Japanese businessman Isao Inokuma, an ex-judo Olympics gold medal-winner whose business was in difficulty, performed hara-kiri. Today the term is generally used in a comical way, to refer to a suicide that makes a splash – usually of a metaphorical kind, such as a computer blowing up.
harridan (noun) = a vicious old woman (pronounced ‘hahr-i-den’) from the 16th-century French, haridelle: old horse; in time, this meaning ungallantly evolved to encompass old women who were always angry
e.g. Her critics attempted to depict Margaret Thatcher as a bullying harridan
harrier (noun) = a persist attacker (pronounced ‘har-ee-er’) from the Middle English, hayrer: a small hunting dog, associated with the hare, which this dog hunted
e.g. He experienced a surge of euphoria when he testified in court against his former boss and harrier
to haver (verb) = to dither (pronounced ‘hey-ver’) from the Scottish, to haver: to babble
e.g. She wasn’t enjoying the Olympic shotput much, and soon found her hand havering over the remote control, ready to switch channels
hebdomadal (adj.) = weekly (pronounced ‘heb-dom-uh-dil’) from the Greek, hebdomas: seven days’ duration, from hepta: seven
e.g. The magazine The Week – as the name implies – is an hebdomadal publication
hecatomb (of) (noun) = any great sacrifice (of) (pronounced ‘hek-a-toom’) from the Greek, hekatombe: a hecatomb, from hekaton: hundred + bous: ox; in ancient Greece, a ‘hecatomb’ was a sacrifice of exactly 100 oxen to the gods
e.g. Almost one million British soldiers died in the hecatomb of World War I
to hector (someone) (verb) = to bully (someone) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Harold Pinter’s plays often feature one character hectoring another, with the playwright’s signature sense of menace being the result
The verb ‘to hector’ comes from the Greek, ‘Hektor’, the greatest warrior for Troy in the Trojan War of Greek mythology.
Thus, in a nod to this noble warrior, the word ‘to hector’ was originally used in English of a hero; but then, when – in the mid-1600s – the term was applied to London street gangs, the sense irrevocably changed at this point, to mean ‘to bully’.
hermetically sealed (set phrase) = (of an environment) completely insulated from outside interference (‘hermetically’ is pronounced ‘hur-met-ik-lee’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Oxford dons live in colleges that are all but hermetically sealed, ensuring these great minds can pursue their studies in peace
The adjective ‘hermetic’ comes from the Latin form of the name of the god Hermes, which was ‘hermeticus’.
Hermes was believed by the ancient Greeks to be able to magically seal a box in a certain way that ensured it could never be opened again, and this is the reason that the word ‘hermetically’ is used today to evoke a particularly airtight seal.
heterodox (adj.) = unorthodox (pronounced ‘het-er-uh-doks’) from the Greek, heterodoxus, from heteros: other + doxa: opinion
e.g. Any player who serves underarm in Wimbledon is embarking on a decidedly heterodox course
heuristic (noun) = a rule of thumb (rather than a more scientific method) (pronounced ‘yoo-ris-tik’) from the Greek, heuriskein: to find
e.g. To help aspiring writers, George Orwell invented a list of six heuristics, such as, ‘If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out’
hijab (noun) = a headscarf worn by Muslim women, covering the hair and neck (pronounced ‘hih-jahb’); note that a ‘burkha’ – which is from a different Arabic word for ‘veil’ (‘burqa’) – covers both the entire body and the entire face, leaving just a mesh screen to see through from the Arabic, hijab: a veil
e.g. A Muslim woman wearing a hijab and pushing a pram is a common sight on the high street
hireling (noun) = (derogatory in tone) a person who works only for the money from the English words, hire (giving the sense of ‘a person for hire, for the best price’) + -ling (the diminutive suffix)
e.g. Cynics say doctors advise patients to buy expensive drugs that they don’t actually need and are really just hirelings of the big pharmaceutical companies
hoary old (set phrase) = (of an idea) mouldy (‘hoary’ is pronounced ‘hawr-ee’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. ‘Time is a great healer’ is the hoary old advice for anyone with a broken heart
‘hoary’ started life in 1510 referring to hair that was ‘white with age’; then, in 1600, ‘hoary’ began to mean ‘ancient’ and then finally evolved into its current sense – which is applied mainly to ideas, rather than to people – of ‘old in a negative way; mouldy’.
Hobson’s choice (set phrase) = an apparently free choice, but one that offers no real alternative (and hence one that is not really a choice at all) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. When asked by customers what colours his Ford Model T was available in, Henry Ford cited Hobson’s choice, saying his car came in ‘any colour you like, so long as it’s black’
The phrase ‘Hobson’s choice’ derives from Thomas Hobson (1554–1631), a stable-owner who ran a horse-rental business in Cambridge.
Hobson used to hire out horses – mainly to Cambridge University students – but refused to hire them out other than in the order he decided; more specifically, he was in the habit of giving his customers the ‘choice’ of the horse nearest the door or no horse at all.
Thirty years after Hobson’s death, in 1660, the phrase ‘Hobson’s choice’ was being used proverbially, and is still referenced today, in situations when there is no real choice at all.
hog-tied (by) (adj.) = impeded (by) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Joan Collins has said of Cameron, ‘I like David, but I think he’s hog-tied by what’s-his-name’
‘hog-tied’ comes from the English words ‘hog’ + ‘tie’, and originally referred to tying together the four legs of a pig (or ‘hog’) on a ranch, to keep the animal immobile whilst it was being branded.
A variation of this ‘hog-tie’ has been used to kill humans in a particularly gruesome way: firstly, the hands are tied together behind the victim’s back; then the feet are bound together with a piece of rope which is also looped around the victim’s neck. The tension on this neck rope can only be relieved if the neck and back are kept arched, but it’s not possible for the victim to keep up this unnatural posture for long, and eventually he tires and strangles to death.
Today the term is thankfully mainly used metaphorically, to refer to a situation where someone’s freedom is severely impinged upon.
hokey (adj.) = corny (pronounced ‘hoh-kee’) from the English word, hokum: a trite movie script
e.g. Critics of Disney films say the endings are predictable and hokey
Homeric (adj.) = (of a situation) grand in size or style (pronounced ‘hoh-mer-ik’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Some economists say that the creation of the euro currency – and all the problems resulting – is a tale of woe that is nothing short of Homeric
‘Homeric’ is used of a situation that is so grand in size or style that it might have made a fitting subject matter for a poem by the writer Homer (who lived c. 800 BC), the greatest epic poet of Ancient Greece.
Homer was the author of the two classic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War (the 10-year siege of the city of Troy by a group of Greek states) and encompasses many battles and events. Meanwhile, the Odyssey is a kind of sequel to it, and centres around the Greek hero Odysseus and his 10 years of wanderings after the fall of Troy. Odysseus encounters many perils during this time, such as the Sirens, who sang so enchantingly that they lured sailors to crash their ships on the rocky coast of the Sirens’ island. But eventually Odysseus does get home and kills the suitors who had been harassing his wife during his absence.
It’s clear from this that Homer would only have been interested in writing about a subject that was meaty, with many twists and turns, and usually one that was tragic; so, when a situation is today described as ‘Homeric’, it means it’s a tragedy of such epic proportions that Homer would be tempted to write about it.
homunculus (noun) = a little man (pronounced ‘huh-muhng-kyuh-luhs’) a diminutive of the Latin, homo, hominis: a man
e.g. For a leading man, Paul Newman – who was well under six feet tall – was something of a homunculus
to break the hoodoo (set phrase) = to break a run of bad luck from the American English word ‘hoodoo’: ‘someone who practices voodoo (black magic)’, in 1870; the sense evolved in 1880 to mean ‘something causing bad luck’
e.g. The football team hadn’t won a title for 10 years, but the hiring of a new coach soon broke the hoodoo
hyperreal (adj.) = (of a piece of art) extremely realistic in detail from the English words hyper + real
e.g. Many critics have praised the film Drive, a hyperreal adaptation of a novel by American writer James Sallis that is centred around driving and violence and is particularly gritty