| 释义 |
H|eɪtʃ|
the eighth letter of the Roman alphabet, ancient and modern, representing historically the Semitic 𐤇, Hheth or Kheth, through the Greek H, Heta, Eta, originally the eighth, but, in the later Greek alphabet, after the omission of ϝ (see F), the seventh letter. The Semitic letter represented a laryngal or guttural spirant, or a rough aspirate, and it was with the aspirate value that the letter was originally used in Greek and passed thence into Roman use. (In the later Greek alphabet, H was used as a vowel, to express long ē, which had previously not been distinguished from short e: see E.) When the Roman alphabet was applied to the Germanic languages, H was used initially for the simple aspirate or breath-sound, which had arisen out of a pre-Germanic or Aryan k, through the stages of guttural aspirate |kh|, and guttural spirant |x|; medially and finally h was put for the guttural spirant itself, which, in later times, came to be written gh or ch: thus, Gothic hauh, OHG. hôh, OE. héah, mod. English high (gh mute), Scotch heich, Ger. hoch. In Old English, h occurred not only before the vowels, but also before the consonants l, n, r, w (representing the pre-Germanic kl-, kn-, kr-, kw-, or q-), as in hláf loaf, hnecca neck, hræfn raven, hwá who; it now stands initially only before vowels. Its power is that of a simple aspiration or breathing, with just sufficient narrowing of the glottis to be audible before a vowel. It is also used to form consonantal digraphs (sh, th, etc.) with simple sounds; and it is often silent, or merely lengthens a preceding vowel.
The name aitch, which is now so remote from any connexion with the sound, goes back through ME. ache to OF. ache = Sp. ache, It. acca, pointing to a late L. *accha, *ahha, or *aha, exemplifying the sound; cf. It. effe, elle, emme, etc. (The earlier L. name was ha.) The plural occurs as aitches, aches, hs, h's.
In late Latin, and in the Romanic languages, the aspirate was no longer pronounced, and consequently often not written; in modern Italian it is entirely omitted, as in eretico, istorico, orribile. In Old French similarly the mute h was originally not written, and it was in this form that many Old French words, such as abit, able, eir, erbe, eritage, onest, onor or onur, ure or oure, ympne, were originally adopted in English. From this stage we derive the still existing forms able, ability, arbour (= erbere), ostler. But at a later period, imitation of the Latin spelling, by scribes who knew that language, gradually led to the restitution of h in the writing of most of these words in French, and thence also in English. In French, the h, though thus artificially reinstated in spelling, remained mute; but in England it was gradually, after the usage of the native words, restored in pronunciation, so that at the present day only a very few words, viz. heir, honest, honour, hour, with their derivatives, remain with h mute; though others, such as herb, humble, humour, were so treated very recently, and are by some people still; and hostler (also spelt ostler) is so pronounced by the majority. A trace of the former muteness or weakness of h in other words is also seen in the still prevalent practice of using an before words with initial h, not accented on the first syllable, as heretical, historical, humane, hypotenuse, and in such archaic forms as ‘mine host’, and the biblical ‘an Hebrew’. In the ME. period, during which h was being gradually reinstated in words from Old French, these show great variety of spelling, the same word appearing now with, and now without h; this uncertainty reacted upon other words beginning with a vowel, so that these also often received an initial h (due probably in some instances, as habundant, to a mistaken notion of their etymology). This spelling has been permanently established in the words hermit and hostage, among others.
In Old English, as in the Teutonic languages generally, initial h was strongly and distinctly aspirated. But early in the Middle-English period it was dropped in pronunciation and writing before l, n, and r. The old hw was from the 12th c. commonly written wh, sometimes w only, in Scotch qwh-, quh-; indicating a variety of pronunciation (see W). Before vowels, in words of Old English or Norse origin, h has been regularly retained in the standard spelling and pronunciation: but in many English dialects, especially those of the midl. and southern counties (not in Scotland, Ireland, or in the United States), the aspirate has disappeared as an ordinary etymological element, and is now employed only with other functions, viz. to avoid hiatus (e.g. the egg, pronounced the-h-egg), and especially in the emphatic or energetic utterance of a syllable with an initial vowel; being then prefixed without distinction to words with or without etymological h; thus horse, ass, usually òss, àss, emphatically (or after a vowel) hòss, hàss. In earlier periods, these dialectal habits naturally affected the written language of literature, where their influence was reinforced by the uncertainty that prevailed as to initial h in words of Latin-French origin; so that during the Middle-English period, and down to the 17th c., we find numerous instances of the non-etymological absence or (more often) presence of initial h in native words also. These characteristics are not confined to English: some modern Dutch and Flemish dialects, especially those of Zealand, Flanders, and North Brabant, have entirely lost h as an etymological element, and employ it to avoid hiatus, and to impart emphasis, exactly like the English dialects; while in Old High German, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, and, above all, Middle Flemish literature, the non-etymological absence and presence of initial h is even more marked than in Middle English. In this Dictionary, some of the chief forms found in earlier use with adventitious initial h are mentioned in their alphabetical order, with a reference to their proper spelling, especially when this is not seen by simple omission of the h; but in other cases it is to be presumed that, when a ME. word in h is not entered here, it will be found in the form without h.
In recent times, the correct treatment of initial h in speech has come to be regarded as a kind of shibboleth of social position; this has resulted in the cultivation of the educated usage in many quarters where it is not native. But even in educated pronunciation, there are cases in which h is usually mute, e.g. at the beginning of a syllable after certain consonant groups, as in exhaust, exhortation, and in such suffixes as -ham, -hope, in Chatham, Clapham, Durham, Greenhope, Stanhope, Tudhope, -herd in shepherd, as well as in the pronouns he, his, him, her, when unemphatic and as it were enclitically combined with the preceding word, as in ‘I met-him on-his horse’. In the corresponding neuter pronoun it, originally hit, in which the unemphatic use predominates, the h was long ago dropped in writing as well as speech. (But in Scotch the emphatic form is still hit.)
After a vowel, h is regularly silent, and such a vowel being usually long, as in oh, ah, bah, hurrah, the addition of h (so usual in modern German) is one of the expedients which we have for indicating a long vowel in foreign or dialect words. The silence of h in certain positions contributed to the currency of such spellings as the obsolete preheminence, proheme, abhominable.
By the combination of h with consonants, numerous digraphs are formed for the expression of simple sounds; the origin of this goes back to the ancient Greek alphabet, which used PH, TH, KH, for the aspirated consonants, which were afterwards provided with single symbols ϕ, θ, Χ, and sank into simple spirants. In Latin the digraphs were retained, and thence th, ch, and occasionally ph, were taken to represent German spirants or aspirates. In Old English, which had þ, ð, for the sound or sounds represented on the continent by th, these digraphs had little currency until after the Norman Conquest, which introduced th, ch, gh, and sometimes yh, for certain English sounds, and substituted wh for OE. hw; the development of a simple sound |ʃ| from the OE. combination sc, led, through sch, to the digraph sh; ph and rh (pronounced f and r) were adopted from Latin as the representatives of Gr. ϕ and ῥ; in more recent times kh has been used to express Slavonic and Semitic guttural spirants; bh, dh, gh, ph, th, kh, to represent Sanskrit and Indian aspirates, or other alien sounds; and zh (on the analogy, s : z : : sh : zh) for the phonetic representation of French j in déjeuner, symbolized in this Dictionary by |ʒ|. (For the history and use of these digraphs, see under their respective initial letters, C, G, etc.)
to drop one's h's (or aitches), to omit initial h where it is pronounced in Standard English.
c1000ælfric Gram. iii. (Z.) 6, h and k ᵹeendiað on a æfter rihte. 1530Palsgr. 17 The soundynge of this letter H, when he hath his aspiration, and when he hath it nat. Ibid., These words ‘honest, honour, habundaunce, habitacion’..in whiche h is written and nat sounded with us. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 111 Into what place so euer H, may pike him, Where euer thou finde ache, thou shalt not like him. 1573–80Baret Alv., H which corruptly wee name Ach..we in England haue great need of it. 1599Shakes. Much Ado iii. iv. 56 Mar. For a hauke, a horse, or a husband? Beat. For the letter that begins them all, H. 1847Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 22 A distinguished magnetiser, who could not sound his h's. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs (1881) 220 A drawing-room where the h and other points of etiquette are rigorously maintained. 1864Tennyson Sea Dreams 192 Dropping the too rough H in Hell and Heaven. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. 313 They liked, as they did not drop their own h's, to talk with people who did not drop theirs. 1888Cornh. Mag. Oct. 365 The letter H is absolutely sacred in the Constitution of the United States. 1892Boldrewood Nevermore I. ii. 41 A very fine young man, but evidently a nobody, inasmuch as he dropped his aitches and so on.
attrib.1885Pall Mall G. 15 Jan. 4/1 If she can read and write, and is not afflicted with the h malady.
b. with reference to the shape of the capital H.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. vii. 8, I had a wound heere that was like a T, But now 'tis like an H. 1688Evelyn Diary 18 Aug., The house..a noble uniform pile in the form of a half H.
2. attrib. and Comb. H-block, one of the H-shaped buildings in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland, the focus of a protest campaign by prisoners claiming ‘political’ (rather than criminal) status in the late 1970s. H-branch, a branch-pipe joining and proceeding at right angles from two parallel pipes. H girder, H iron. H hinge, a type of hinge which when open has the form of an H. h-less (aitchless), adj., without an h or h's; not aspirating the letter h. H-piece, in a force-pump, a piece standing on the wind-bore under the door-piece, by which the water is forced through the door-piece into the standpipe.
1726in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1912) VII. 278 H hinges at 8s per pair. 1836L. Hebert Engin. & Mech. Encycl. I. 674 Another sort, called H..hinges, from their resemblance to those letters, are extensively employed for common purposes. 1875J. H. Collins Metal Mining 147 H-piece. 1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., H iron, rolled wrought-iron bar whose section is that of the letter I. Used extensively for building up engineering structures. 1893Temple Bar Mag. July 322 Millionaire cheesemongers who dwell h-less in the feudal castles of the poor. 1894Times 1 Mar. 14/5 She..brings ‘h'less’ Socialists as guests to her husband's house. 1894Du Maurier Trilby II. 135 Hebrew capitalists and aitchless millionaires. 1902A. C. Harmsworth et al. Motors vi. 90 The roof of the house is strengthened at certain points by cross timbers which support two small H girders, and carry iron frames to which are attached pulley blocks. 1960H. Hayward Antique Coll. 142/1 ‘H’ hinge, like the cock's head hinge, an early external type of hinge in the form of the letter ‘H’ extensively used on cupboards of the 16th and 17th cent. [1976Ulster Commentary Apr. 5/4 New cell units at the Maze Prison... Each unit is in the form of an ‘H’, each leg of the ‘H’ containing 25 individual cells with showers, wash-hand basins, toilets, a dining recreation room with TV and games, and a hobbies room.] 1976Irish Times 14 Dec. 5/3 For 11 weeks now sentenced Republican..prisoners in H-block, Long Kesh, have been held in solitary confinement. 1977New Statesman 30 Sept. 439/2 There are five H-blocks completed in the Maze (three more are being built). 1979[see blanket n. 3]. 1986Guardian Weekly 22 June 5/5 McDonnel, a big boned Belfast man who had joined the blanket and dirty protest in the H Blocks of the Maze, took time off to marry his girlfriend.
II.
3. a. Used like the other letters of the alphabet to denote serial order; applied e.g. to the eighth group or section in classification, the eighth sheet of a book or quire of a MS., etc.
b. Designation of a strong Fraunhofer line at 3969 Å, caused by calcium ions; † orig., (the position occupied by) the H and K lines as a pair. [Named by J. Fraunhofer 1817, in Ann. d. Physik LVI. 286.]
1823tr. Fraunhofer in Edin. Philos. Jrnl. IX. 297 The two bands at H are of a very singular nature. 1865Phil. Trans. CLIV. 149 A pair of strong lines..near the extreme refrangible end of the spectrum..may coincide with those of Fraunhofer's H. 1879,1967[see K 3 c].
4. H was a mediæval symbol of 200. H = 200,000. (See Du Cange.)
1727–51in Chambers Cycl.
5. Music. The note B natural in the German system of nomenclature (the letter B being used only for B flat).
1880Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms. 1880Gehring in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 643/1 H major is a key rarely used..H minor is the key of Schubert's very fine unfinished Symphony.
6. Math. In the differential calculus, h is used to denote a small increment.
1872B. Williamson Diff. Calculus i. §6 (1873) 4 Let x become x + h, where h = △ x.
7. In Cryst., h, k, l are used for the quantities which determine the position of a plane.
1868Dana Min. Introd. 28. 1895 Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. ii. 19.
8. Math., Physics. H denotes the Hamiltonian function of classical mechanics or the Hamiltonian operator of quantum mechanics.
1835W. R. Hamilton in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. LXXV. 98 If then we introduce, for abridgement, the following expression H. 1935Pauling & Wilson Quantum Mech. i. 16 Involving a function H..called the Hamiltonian function. 1965W. Hauser Introd. Princ. Mech. vi. 194 Whenever the Lagrangian is not explicitly a function of time, the function H..referred to as the Hamiltonian of the system, is a constant of the motion. Ibid. 195 This can be verified by considering the variation of H.
9. Physics. h denotes Planck's constant, the elementary quantum of action (M. Planck 1900, in Verh. d. Deutsch. Physik. Ges. II. 245). In more recent usage, the quantum of angular momentum h/2π has been represented by ℏ.
1901Sci. Abstr. IVa. 230, ε = hν, where h is a constant. 1934Physical Rev. XLVI. 925/2, ℏ. 1935Pauling & Wilson Quantum Mech. ii. 25 The constant of proportionality, h, is a new constant of nature,..called Planck's constant {ddd}h/2π [is] a natural unit or quantum of angular momentum. 1955L. I. Schiff Quantum Mech. (ed. 2) i. 7 The product of the uncertainties of the..position and momentum components is at least of the order of magnitude of ℏ.
III. Abbreviations. (Those given here with the full stop are frequently used without it.) H. = various proper names, as Henry, Helen; h., (in a ship's log), hail; H, (on lead pencils), hard; the various degrees of hardness being denoted by HH, HHH, etc.; H., henry (Electr.), heroin; H or h (Physics), horizontal force; H, as a direction in a musical score, horns; H, designating horror films; h., hot, as h. and c., hot and cold (water); H or h., hour; H., in the Shipping Register, Hoy; H. (Chem.), Hydrogen; also, hydrogen (bomb); so H-bomb, H-test, etc.; H. and D. (see quots. 1918, 1930); HB, (on lead pencils), hard black (denoting a medium hardness); H.B.C., Hudson's Bay Company; H.B.M., His (or Her) Britannic Majesty; H.C., Heralds' College, House of Commons; H.C.F. (Math.), Highest Common Factor; H.E., His Eminence, His (or Her) Excellency, high explosive; H.E.I.C., Honourable East India Company; HF, Hf, Hf, Hf, healthy female(s); H.F., h.f., high frequency; H.G., Horse Guards; H.H., His (or Her) Highness, or His Holiness; H-Hour, the hour at which an operation is to begin; cf. D-Day; H.I.M., His (or Her) Imperial Majesty; HIV, human immunodeficiency virus: either of two retroviruses (HIV-1, HIV-2) which cause AIDS; also (redundantly) HIV virus; cf. HTLV below; H.K., Hong Kong (in currency notation); HM, Hm, Hm, Hm, healthy male(s); H.M., His (or Her) Majesty; H.M.C., Headmasters' Conference; H.M.C., His (or Her) Majesty's Customs; H.M.G., His (or Her) Majesty's Government; H.M.I.(S.), His (or Her) Majesty's Inspector of Schools; H.M.S., His (or Her) Majesty's Ship or Service; H.M.S.O., His (or Her) Majesty's Stationery Office; H.N.C., Higher National Certificate; H.O., Hostilities Only (see quots.); H.P., half-pay, high pressure, hire purchase, horse-power, hybrid perpetual; H.P. Sauce, the proprietary name of a type of spiced brown sauce; H.Q., Headquarters; † H.q. or h.q., hoc quære, look for this = q.v.; H.R.H., His (or Her) Royal Highness; H.T., h.t., high tension; HTLV, human T-cell lymphotropic or lymphocyte virus: any of several retroviruses (HTLV-1, -2, etc.) of which one at least (HTLV-3, also called HIV-1) causes AIDS; cf. HIV above; HUAC, House [of Representatives] Un-American Activities Committee; Hz, hertz (unit of frequency).
1910N. Hawkins Electr. Dict., *H. The symbol of induction. The Henry. h. An abbreviation for the henry, the practical unit of induction.
1926Clues Nov. 161/2 *H, heroin. 1929Sat. Even. Post 13 Apr. 54/3 Heroin is referred to as H. 1933C. de Lenoir Hundredth Man iv. 61, I opened the packet of H. and took a generous sniff. 1962K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed v. 42 Suppose I..ask you where to connect for H?
1938Ann. Reg. 1937 339 In June, Lord Tyrell, President of the British Board of Film Censors, introduced a new film classification called ‘*H’ to apply to horror films. Pictures so labelled will not be shown to children under 16, whether accompanied by an adult or not. 1958Times 4 Aug. 10/2 ‘H’ used to, and now ‘X’ does, among other things, stand for Horror, and the two new films this week..are rich in those qualities [etc.]. 1960Spectator 1 July 20 The Visit is old-style grand guignol with a few modern H-certificate props.
1901Punch 24 July 64/1 Bathroom (*h. and c.). 1930Morning Post 17 June 20/7, 4 bed-rooms (h. and c. in each). 1937‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier xiii. 250 The literary gent in his Tudor cottage with bathroom h. and c.
1950Hansard, Commons 6 Nov. 114, I am not one who criticised the right hon. Gentleman..for drawing attention to the *H-bomb. 1952Manch. Guardian Weekly 20 Nov. 2/2 The first test model of the H-bomb will be followed shortly by even more violent versions. 1955Bull. Atomic Sci. June 226/2 He asserts that H-war, terrible as it will be, is still better than Communist domination. 1957Observer 8 Sept. 9/3 With bovine stolidity Western man carries on with his H-bomb tests. 1958‘P. Bryant’ Two Hours to Doom 96 Their phoney ending of H-tests. 1959Listener 16 July 88/2 United States H-bombers. 1968Times 29 Oct. 7/3 The first Chinese H-bomb, tested in June last year, probably contained zinc in its construction.
1852C. H. Weigall Art of Figure Drawing (Advts.) 14 *H. Moderately hard (used for light sketching). HH. A degree harder (for outlines and fine Drawing). HHH. Very hard (for Architectural Drawing). 1895Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List 563/2 The ‘Kohinoor’, a high-class drawing Pencil..H, HH, HHH. 1926R. Macaulay Crewe Train ii. xii. 211 She purchased a packet of notepaper and envelopes and a pencil (H.H.) at the post office. 1934M. V. Hughes London Child of Seventies xiv. 167 ‘I say, Molly, lend us your Scripture pencil,’ Dym would say, for he knew that was an H, and good for his geometry figures. 1948H. Missingham Student's Guide Commerc. Art ii. 57 The degree markings on pencils are:..6H, 4H, 3H—Extra Hard.
1903A. Watkins Photogr. (ed. 2) 29 A box of one maker's plates marked *H & D 100. 1918Photo-Miniature XV. Mar. (Gloss.), H. & D. (Hurter and Driffield)—used as a prefix to numbers signifying the speed of plates measured by the system devised by these investigators. Fastest plates, H. & D. 400 to 500. 1930Sel. Gloss. Motion Pict. Techn. (Acad. Motion Pict., Hollywood), H and D curve, the characteristic curve of a photographic emulsion.
1852C. H. Weigall Art of Figure Drawing (Advts.) 14 *H.B. Hard and Black (deeper shade than F). 1962L. Deighton Ipcress File xxv. 165, I took his wooden HB pencil.
1732Let. 19 Feb. in Calendar State Papers, Amer. & West Indies (1939) 64 That *H.E. and less than five of the Council could not hold Courts of Chancery. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair li. 453 H.E. Papoosh Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador (attended by Kibob Bey, dragoman of the mission). Ibid. lxiii. 571 H.E. Madame de Burst received once a week. 1946Koestler Thieves in Night 198 He thought that H.E. went indeed a bit far in demonstrating his dislike of the Hebrew community. 1970Catholic Directory 43 (heading) Ireland. The hierarchy at the present time... Armagh. H.E. Cardinal William Conway.
1901Daily Chron. 27 June 3/2 To introduce a very much larger proportion of *H.E. shell. 1915D. O. Barnett Let. 23 May 153 H.E. is the shell for attacking, because you blow the defenders out of their trenches. 1955Bull. Atomic Sci. Feb. 55/3 The thoroughness of an atomic bombardment's ‘area coverage’ exceeds that of HE carpet bombing beyond comparison.
1880*Hf [see HM below].
1913Year-Bk. Wireless Telegr. 289 To make the current-distribution over the cross-section more uniform for *H.F. currents. 1923Popular Wireless (Suppl.) 13 Oct. 10 ‘Plug-in’ H.F. Transformers. 1924Exper. Wireless Apr. 397/2 The atmospheric band frequencies which penetrate the H.F. filter. 1942Electronic Engin. XV. 168 A hair-pin filament heated by h.f. current. 1967New Scientist 25 May 455/3 All the frequencies in the HF band that are needed by the many transmitters at the station are produced by processing the ‘master’ frequency.
1918in Amer. Speech (1944) XIX. 302 ‘Over the top’ is now ‘the jump off’ and ‘zero hour’ has changed to ‘*H hour’. 1927J. M. Saunders Wings (1928) v. 210 The word went out that ‘D’ day was to be Sept. 12, and that 5 a.m. was to be ‘H’ hour. 1945Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 12 Apr.–26 Sept. 1944 342 No fewer than 13 companies landed on the first tide, at H hour plus 25 minutes to be precise.
1986Capital Gay 11 Apr. 4 An international committee on viral names has been looking into the problem, and was rumoured to have agreed on ‘human immune deficiency virus’ (HIDV or *HIV). 1986J.Coffin et al. in Nature 1 May 10 We propose that the AIDS retroviruses be officially designated as the human immunodeficiency viruses, to be known in abbreviated form as HIV. 1986Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 12 Aug. 3/6 He said the antigens of HIV II would have to be incorporated into blood testing to protect supplies. 1987Nature 9 Apr. 610/1 Another is the virus isolated from West Africans with AIDS-like illness and originally called LAV-2 but now renamed HIV-2... These viruses seem to be less closely related to HIV-1 than they are to a virus of healthy African green monkeys. 1987Daily Tel. 17 Apr. 2/6 One of the two blood donors had been found not to be carrying the HIV virus, but the other could not be traced. 1987New Scientist 23 Apr. 20/3 Whereas HIV-2 can infect, at least transiently, primate species that are evolutionarily more distantly related to humans (at least baboons and macaques), HIV-1 infects only humans and chimpanzees.
1952Hong Kong Trade Returns Jan. 1 The unit of value is the Hong Kong dollar, the official rate of exchange being *H.K. $16 = {pstlg}1 sterling. 1964Asia Mag. 12 July 24/1 According to official figures, on average nearly HK $1 million went into land and building every day in 1963.
1880Encycl. Brit. XIII. 170/2 Table *Hmf, comprising all the healthy lives, male and female, included in the observations... Table *Hm, comprising the healthy male lives only... Table Hf, comprising the healthy female lives. 1898Westm. Gaz. 14 Nov. 8/1 With its premiums and its reversionary bonuses, and its Hm tables and its surrender values.
1905in Rep. Headmasters' Conf. 1905 (1906) 97 The 1903 recommendations of the *H.M.C. favoured solution (b) as more in harmony with the existing practice and principles of the Universities. 1966Rep. Comm. Inquiry Univ. Oxf. II. 48 Among men from independent schools, the great majority are from H.M.C. schools.
1938E. Waugh Scoop ii. xii. 137 We don't quite know what he's up to; whatever it is, it doesn't suit *H.M.G.'s book. 1971Guardian 28 July 11/1 Any deal with Ian Smith..would make it impossible for Labour men to support HMG on Europe.
1908E. M. Sneyd-Kynnersley (title) *H.M.I.: Some passages in the life of one of H.M. Inspectors of Schools. 1963S. Marshall Exper. in Education ii. 40 The modern H.M.I. sniffs the atmosphere of a school the moment he opens the door.
1905F. H. Collins Author & Printer 164/1 *H.M.S.O., (His or Her Majesty's) Stationery Office. 1969Listener 20 Feb. 255/3 Britain: An Official Handbook, published by HMSO two or three weeks ago at 32s. 6d.
1949Educ. in 1948 (Cmd. 7724) 44 (caption) *H.N.C. 1967Times Rev. Industry Aug. 70/3 The rising failure rate of the HNC candidates.
1942Partridge Dict. Abbrev. 48/2 *H.O., Hostilities only; applied to a man that has joined for the duration of the war. (Naval.) 1961B. Fergusson Watery Maze i. 55 H.O. (‘Hostilities Only’) ratings—men who had joined the Royal Navy for the duration of the war.
1902Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 151 The *H.-P. valves are worked by means of a simple lever from the L.-P. valve⁓rods. 1930Engineering 9 May 599/1 Since both the H.P. and L.P. rotors have their own thrust blocks, the two are connected by a Wellmann-Bibby coupling, which permits of free axial expansion.
1945Daily Mirror 6 Sept. 3/2 ‘Stop *H.P. babies’... Mothers..have to pay for their babies on the hire-purchase system because of the high charges of maternity homes. 1958Spectator 13 June 759/2 They cannot keep up the HP payments. 1959New Statesman 17 Oct. 494/2 The artisan class lives in new houses and pays off the telly and the car on HP.
1869S. R. Hole Bk. about Roses xi. 174 Marguerite Dombrain, *H.P...an early, reliable, vigorous, bright carmine Rose. 1893W. Robinson Eng. Flower Garden (ed. 3) 644/2 Gabriel Luizet, General Jacqueminot and many other H.Ps do not usually bloom after the month of August.
1912Trade Marks Jrnl. 22 May 768 *HP..Sauce and pickles. Edwin Samson Moore, trading as ‘The Midland Vinegar Company’, ‘The Trade Malt Vinegar Company’, and as F. G. Garton & Co.,..Aston Cross,..Warwickshire, vinegar brewer and sauce and pickle manufacturer. 1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 37/1 Sauces..H.P.— -/9. 1940J. Betjeman Coll. Poems (1958) 83, I pledge her in non-alcoholic wine And give the H.P. Sauce another shake. 1971P. Worsthorne Socialist Myth viii. 171 He [sc. Mr. Harold Wilson] manages to retain a little of the working-class-lad-made-good appeal... The H.P.-Sauce style of leadership is a style, so long as it is abnormal.
1909Webster, *H.Q. 1915D. O. Barnett Let. 18 Jan. 39 After reporting at Brigade H.Q. we went on to our regiments. 1958M. Shaara in ‘E. Crispin’ Best SF Three 23 To heck with the rest. We'll let HQ worry about that.
1931Daily Express 18 Mar. 13/2 Fuller 100 volt *H.T. and G.B. Battery.
1980B. J. Poiesz et al. in Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. LXXVII. 7415/1 Retrovirus particles with type C morphology were found in two T-cell lymphoblastoid cell lines..and in fresh peripheral blood lymphocytes..from a patient with a cutaneous T-cell lymphoma... The cell lines continuously produce these viruses, which are collectively referred to as *HTLV, strain CR (HTLVCR). 1981Nature 19 Nov. 271/2 The antibodies against HTLV are..the first evidence for a specific immune response in humans against a retrovirus. 1982Science 19 Feb. 975/2 HTLV is an acquired, not endogenous, retrovirus. 1984N.Y. Times 22 Apr. 16/3 Federal health officials have scheduled a news conference..to discuss findings made by an AIDS researcher, Dr. Robert Gallo, and his colleagues..concerning a retrovirus they have reportedly called HTLV-3, for human T-cell lymphotropic virus. 1984R. C. Gallo et al. in Science 4 May 501/1 Here we describe the detection and isolation of HTLV-III from a large number of patients with AIDS and pre-AIDS. 1986Sci. Digest May 24/3 To date, the rarest viral cancer discovered causes T cell leukemia. The culprit virus, HTLV-I, is in the same family as the AIDS virus. 1987Oxf. Textbk. Med. (ed. 2) I. v. 151/2 HTLV-1 is the primary cause of adult T cell leukaemia-lymphoma.., HTLV-2 has yet to be associated with disease though it is probably leukaemogenic.
1966Economist 27 Aug. 817/1 *HUAC, even in its very name, implies an inquisitiveness about individual political beliefs that is unconstitutional. 1968Listener 31 Oct. 566/3 HUAC is trying to investigate how far the Chicago violence was the result of a communist conspiracy.
1958Quantities & Units Periodic Phenom. (ISO Recommendation R 31) 5, 1 *Hz is the frequency of a periodic phenomenon of which the periodic time is 1 s. 1966Wireless World Sept. 50 (Advt.), In order to extend the flat response below 40 Hz the rear of the bass driver is loaded with an acoustic transmission line. 1969Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 8 Frequency response of 35 to 18,000 Hz. Crossover is at 2500 Hz.
Add:[III.] HM, heavy metal (music): see heavy a.1 20 d.
1974Music Scene June 10/1 The term Heavy Metal (*HM) was lifted from William Burroughs' book ‘Nova Express’ and brought into rock vocabulary. 1987New Musical Express 14 Feb. 7/3 The latest branch on rock's American tree is a phenomenon tagged Speed Metal, the place where HM supposedly mates with hardcore.
HRT, hormone replacement therapy.
1973Good Housekeeping Jan. 54/1 For women on *HRT there is no menopause, no hot flushes, backaches nor depression. 1988What Diet & Lifestyle Apr./May 91/1 The safety of HRT has encouraged some doctors to suggest that treatment should be ‘for life’ from the menopause onwards.
▸ HCFC n. Chem. = hydrochlorofluorocarbon n.
1984Soap, Cosmetics, Chem. Specialties June 33/3 Dr. Daly discussed the studies performed on *HCFC 22, described as ‘the only non-flammable propellant currently available in the U.S. for general aerosol use’... HCFC is..‘an important propellant from a packaging property and toxicology viewpoint’. 1988New Scientist 12 May 72/3 Two HCFCs..are being tested for toxicity for the job of blowing polyurethane. 2001Nature 19 July p. ix/2 It emerged recently that there is more trifluoroacetic acid in the environment than can be explained by HCFC breakdown alone, and Ellis et al. this week identify a new source: industrial fluoropolymers.
▸ hCG n. (also HCG) Med. = human chorionic gonadotropin n. at human adj. and n. Additions.
1950H. M. Evans & M. E. Simpson in G. Pincus & K. V. Thimann Hormones II. vi. 363 Human chorionic gonadotrophin—originally designated ‘Prolan’ by Aschheim and Zondek, its discoverers,..was not at first distinguished from pituitary hormone... Several types of work led to the realization that *HCG is not identical with any pituitary hormone. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 25 Dec. 3/3 Human chorionic gonadotrophin..is present during pregnancy. When an egg is fertilized it produces hCG. 2002Times 16 July (Good Birth Guide Suppl.) 5/6 Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG): very high levels indicate Down's.
▸ HDTV n. high-definition television (see definition n. 5c).
1980SMPTE Jrnl. Feb. 90/1 The appropriate line rate for *HDTV is approximately 1100 lines per frame. 1992Publishers Weekly Summer 21/1 Television's future will bring a fivefold rise in screen resolution with HDTV. 2005N.Y. Times 6 Feb. ii. 6/5 HDTV doesn't just make television look as it never has before; it makes it sound different, too.
▸ HFC n. Chem. = hydrofluorocarbon n.
1988PR Newswire (Nexis) 5 Jan. Based on their physical and chemical properties, two compounds, HCFC-123 and *HFC-134a, appear to be promising candidates to replace CFCs in many current applications. 1994N.Y. Times 11 Jan. c5/2 HFC's are generally regarded as harmless to atmospheric ozone. 2000Plumbing Mag. (Institute of Plumbing) May–June 36/4 Refrigerants are no longer the environmentally harmful CFCs of old but are blended HFC chemicals accepted by global legislation.
▸ HGH n. (also hGH) Med. = human growth hormone n. at human adj. and n. Additions.
1957Science 3 May 884 (caption) *HGH, human growth hormone; MGH, monkey growth hormone. 1979Pediatrics 63 386 The availability of a commercial preparation of human growth hormone (hGH) prompted a study in children with hypopituitarism to determine the efficacy of a lower dose of hGH. 1995Guardian 4 Aug. i. 6/3 HGH is used to treat dwarfism, and there are fears that there is a thriving black market, with a substantial amount stolen from Great Ormond Street hospital in 1987.
▸ HMO n. orig. and chiefly U.S. = Health Maintenance Organization n. at health n. Additions.
1971Postgraduate Med. July 128/1 The rates for hospital use and surgical procedures are significantly lower and *HMO subscribers require fewer physicians and hospital beds per capita than U.S. patients as a whole. 2001National Post (Toronto) 4 Apr. a19/1 A group led by Courtney Love..are demanding that record companies provide them with a decent pension and health care package. The party animals can't take it any more and want a good HMO.
▸ HPV n. Med. = human papillomavirus n. at human adj. and n. Additions.
1975Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 72 4810 Human papillomavirus (*HPV) DNA form I (supercoiled) was prepared from virions purified from plantar warts. 2000Times 28 Dec. ii. 9/4 Now that there is a method of culturing HPV, doctors can give a good opinion about the risk a woman faces and the need for frequent smears.
▸ hsp n. (also HSP) Biochem. = heat-shock protein n. at heat n. Additions; freq. with a following numeral indicating the molecular size in kilodaltons, as hsp70.
1979Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 76 5254/1 We have recently characterized two cloned Dm DNA segments that contain genes for the major heat-induced polypeptide, the 70,000-dalton heat-shock protein (*hsp 70). 1990Jrnl. Exper. Bot. 41 887/1 A heat shock treatment induces the synthesis of HSPs and at the same time induces tolerance to a more severe heat treatment. 2002Guardian 20 June i. 4/7 HSP 27 played a critical role in the integrity of the blood-brain barrier.
▸ HTML n. Computing = Hypertext Markup Language n. at hypertext n. Additions.
1993Guardian 11 Nov. ii. 19/4 The most flexible method of embedding information into the web is to provide it in a hypertext format using *HTML, the hypertext mark-up language. 1994Computer Weekly 30 June 26/3 HTML has ‘tags’ to tell your browser how to lay out the text it is receiving. 1999Stamp Mag. Dec. 88/4 There are virtually dozens of computer programs and books that claim to simplify the procedure of writing web pages in HTML.
▸ HTTP n. Computing = hypertext transfer protocol n. or hypertext transport protocol n. at hypertext n. Additions; (the abbreviation, in lower-case letters followed by a colon, constitutes the beginning of the web address of a file to be transmitted using this protocol).
1992J. Reynolds & J. B. Postel Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 1340. 12 Keyword www. Decimal 80/tcp. Description World Wide Web *HTTP. 1992Computers in Libraries Dec. 75/3 The HTTP protocol for information transfer over TCP/IP is similar to the Z39.50 standard for libraries. 1998PC Week 21 Apr. 3/5, HTTP-NG is a long-term project to upgrade the existing HTTP framework which has been in place since 1990. |