hight

• highte

• Rhymes: -aɪt
• IPA^(key): /haɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: height

From Middle English hight (“to be named, be called”) (alternative past participle of hoten, see also hote), from Old English hēht (“was named, was called”, preterite of hātan), from *hehait-, reduplicate preterite base of Proto-West Germanic *haitan, from Proto-Germanic *haitaną (“to call, command, summon”). Akin to German heißen.

hight (no third-person singular simple present, no present participle, simple past and past participle hight) hight is only the preterite or past participle, not the infinitive or present.

1. (obsolete) simple past of hote
2. (archaic, transitive) To call, name.
   • c. 1515, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c., published 1568:

     But if that I knewe what his name hight,
     For clatering of me I would him ſone quight;
     For his falſe lying, of that I ſpake never,
     I could make him ſhortly repent him forever: […]

   • 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza III:

     Childe Harold was he hight.

   • 1905, Howard Pyle, “The Story of Launcelot”, in The Story of the Champions of the Round Table‎, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 66:

     “Lord,” said Sir Launcelot, “I am hight Launcelot, and am surnamed ‘He of the Lake.’”

3. (archaic, intransitive) To be called or named.
   • c. 1547, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, The faithful Lover declareth his Pains and his uncertain Joys, and with only Hope recomforteth somewhat his woful Heart:

     Bright was her hue, and Geraldine she hight.

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     […] I did incounter that obſeene and moſt prepoſterous euent that draweth frõ my ſnowhite pen the ebon coloured Incke, which here thou vieweſt, beholdeſt, ſuruayeſt, or ſeeſt. […] There did I ſee that low ſpirited Swaine, […] hight Coſtard, (Clow[ne]. O mee) ſorted and conſorted contrary to thy eſtabliſhed proclaymed Edict and continent Cannon; Which with, o with, but with this I paſſion to ſay wherewith: / Clo[wne]. With a Wench.

4. (archaic, dialectal) To command; to enjoin.

   I hight ye take me wi' ye. I ne can no lenger her b'live.

   • 1872, John Stuart Blackie, Lays of the Highlands and Islands‎:

     Malaise priest of Innishmurry / Hights me go, and I obey.

• The verb hight has many different forms in many different regions. For the present tense the form het was rather common. The usage example for the sense "to command or to enjoin" can be rendered in standard English in the following manner:

  I hight ye take me wi' ye. I ne can no lenger her b'live

  I bid you take me with you. I can no longer stay here.

• Moreover, in the sense "to enjoin", the word is mainly used for emphasis, and as such is untranslatable into standard English. For example:

  I het ye leit mee men ga. 'Ey ne dyde nathing te na ane. 'Ey ar wyteless.

  Please, let my men go. They did not do anything to any one. They are blameless.

• The word survives only as part of the oral tradition in rural Scotland and Northern England. It is no longer used in common speech.

hight (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Called, named.

   Synonym: yclept

   • 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 514”, in Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:

     […] there dwelt in a city of the cities of China a man which was a tailor, withal a pauper, and he had one son, Alaeddin hight.

See height

hight (plural hights)

1. Obsolete form of height.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     High thron'd above all hights

• thigh

• huht, hihht, hihte, hiȝte, hiht

From Old English hyht.

• IPA^(key): /hixt/
• Rhymes: -ixt

hight

1. hopefulness, expectedness
2. gladness, satisfaction

• English: hight (obsolete)

• “hight, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-24.