heft
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /hɛft/
ipa: /heft/
rhymes: -ɛft
Forms: form: hefts
form: haft
Etymology: The noun is derived from Late Middle English heft (“heaviness; something heavy, a weight”), from heven (“to lift, raise; to make an effort to lift or raise, heave”) + -th (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc., forming nouns), by analogy with the development of weft from weven (modern English weave), etc. (also compare words like cleft from cleave, and theft from thieve, where the development occurred in Old English or earlier languages). The English word is analysable as heave + -t (suffix forming nouns from verbs).
The verb is probably derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.
text: But Durindan at laſt fell vvith ſuch heft, / Full on the circle of Rogeros ſhield, / That halfe vvay through the Argent byrd it cleft, / And pierſt the core of male [i.e., mail] that vvas vvithin, / And found a paſſage to the verie skin.
ref: 1591, [Ludovico Ariosto], “The XXX. Booke”, in Iohn Haringtõ [i.e., John Harington], transl., Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, […], London: […] Richard Field […], →OCLC, stanza 51, page 245, column 1:
text: I pictured him doing violence to his better nature, and only wanting a good heft of circumstance to enable him to throw off his load of deviltry.
ref: 1888, Paul Cushing, “The Plateau Mine”, in The Blacksmith of Voe […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 255:
text: Unlike most moons of the solar system, ours has the heft to pull itself into a sphere.
ref: 2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2023:
text: The skull [of a Hubbs' beaked whale] was an awkward armload. Bizarrely, its size, shape, and long, narrow bill brought to mind the head of Big Bird from Sesame Street, but with none of bird-bone's lightness: It had heft and density.
ref: 2021 March 30, J[ames] B[ernard] MacKinnon, “An Entire Group of Whales has Somehow Escaped Human Attention”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 May 2024:
synonyms: heftiness
glosses: The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.
examples: text: The man had been carried out of the yard while the fire was still burning; […] Public opinion was much divided, some holding that it would go hard with a man of his age and heft; but the common belief seemed to be that he was of that sort "as'd take a deal o'killin'," and that he would be none the worse for such a fall as that.
ref: 1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “Englebourn Village”, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 302:
text: "Look at the heft of 'n [a baby]," said the proud father, "entirely drags ye down, Miss Sybil, 'e do."
ref: 1888–1889, Maxwell Gray [pseudonym; Mary Gleed Tuttiett], “Light and Shade”, in The Reproach of Annesley. […], volume I, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., […], published 1889, →OCLC, part III, page 260:
text: Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, pages 115–116:
qualifier: dated except UK
glosses: The force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight.
examples: text: He's got a good voice, and reads well; but come to a sermon—wal, ain't no gret heft in't.
ref: 1878, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The Illumination”, in Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives, New York, N.Y.: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, →OCLC, page 35:
glosses: Graveness, seriousness; gravity.
examples: text: Put more baldly, the reason why Republicans and British Conservatives started giving each other copies of Atlas Shrugged in the 80s was that [Ayn] Rand seemed to grant intellectual heft to the prevailing ethos of the time.
ref: 2017 April 10, Jonathan Freedland, “The new age of Ayn Rand: How she won over Trump and Silicon Valley”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:
glosses: Importance, influence; weight.
examples: text: The turkey's nest was islanded with a fragrant swath,—the "heft" of the crop noted and rejoiced over,—[…]
ref: 1865, [Adeline Dutton Train Whitney], “The Secret at the Hartshornes”, in The Gayworthys: A Story of Threads and Thrums. […], Boston, Mass.: [A. K.] Loring, […], →OCLC, page 49:
text: He run to South America or somewheres, taking the heft of the firm's money with him.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 7:
glosses: The greater part of something; the bulk, the mass.
examples: text: Deigning no answer, the sturdy parson seized the bigger of the two ash staves, and laying the butt of the other for a fulcrum, gave the stuck wheel such a powerful heft, that the whole cart rattled, and the crates began to dance.
ref: 1882, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “Parson Short”, in Christowell. A Dartmoor Tale. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 35:
text: It was a tremendous heft to raise the boat on to the wall and push it over, but somehow she managed it; […]
ref: 1888, Paul Cushing, “A Gust of the Soul and⸺”, in The Blacksmith of Voe […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 189:
glosses: An act of lifting; a lift.
examples: text: [I]f one preſent / Th'abhor'd Ingredient [a spider in a drink] to his eye, make knovvne / Hovv he hath drunke, he cracks his gorge, his ſides / VVith violent Hefts: I haue drunke, and ſeene the Spider.
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 282, column 1:
glosses: An act of heaving (lifting with difficulty); an instance of violent exertion or straining.
Derived terms: heftiness
hefty