heah

heah (not comparable)

1. (US, historical, colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of here, representing African-American Vernacular English.
   • 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Virago Press (2018), page 46:

     ‘Yeah, uh store right heah in town wid everything in it you needs.’

heah (not comparable)

1. (US, historical, colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of here, representing African-American Vernacular English.

• theah
• wheah

• hēh
• hēa — adverb

From Proto-West Germanic *hauh, from Proto-Germanic *hauhaz. Cognate with Old Frisian hāh, Old Saxon hōh, Old High German hōh, Old Dutch hōh, Old Norse hár, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃 (hauhs).

• IPA^(key): /xæ͜ɑːx/, [hæ͜ɑːx]

hēah (comparative hīerra, superlative hīehst)

1. high, tall
   • Caedmon's metrical paraphrase

     ...seoððan þū þonne hafast handum āmetene hū hēh and dēop hell inneweard sēo, grim græfhūs, gong ricene tō...

     ...then, after thou hast with thy hands measured how high and deep hell is within, the grim grave-house, go forthwith to...

2. exalted, important
3. proud
4. deep
   • 10th century, The Wanderer:

     wlonc bī wealle. · Sume wīġ fornōm,
     ferede in forðweġe; · sumne fugel ōþbær
     ofer hēanne holm; · sumne sē hāra wulf
     dēaðe ġedǣlde, · sumne drēoriġhlēor
     in eorðsċræfe · eorl ġehȳdde.

     proud by the wall. The war took away some men,
     carried into the forth-way; a bird bore away someone
     over deep sea; the grey wolf shared someone with death;
     a sad-faced warrior hid someone in earthen cave.

5. right (as opposed to left)
6. (in compounds) main, principal, arch-

   hēahfæder ― patriarch

   hēahenġel ― arch-angel

   hēahcleofa ― main chamber

7. (in compounds) denotes intensification, completion or perfection

   hēahfæst ― permanent, immutable

Names formed with the element hēah, such as Reġenhēah, are always masculine.^[1]

• dēop (“deep”)
• niþerlīċ (“low”)

• Middle English: heigh
  • English: high, heigh (dialectal)
    • Sranan Tongo: hei
    • → German: high
    • → Polish: haj
  • Scots: heich
  • Yola: heigh, heighe, heegh, hia, hie
• Scots: he-, hey-