Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HER-MET'IC-AL-LY, adv.

According to the hermetic art; chimically; closely; accurately; as, a vessel hermetically sealed or closed.

HER'MIT, n. [Fr. hermite, ermite; Sp. ermitaño; It. eremita; Gr. ερημιτης, from ερημος, solitary, destitute. Perhaps from the Shemitic חרם, to cut off from society, to expel, or to be separated. Class Rm. See Harem.]

1. A person who retires from society and lives in solitude; a recluse; an anchoret. The word is usually applied to a person who lives in solitude, disengaged from the cares and interruptions of society, for the purpose of religious contemplation and devotion.
2. A beadsman; one bound to pray for another. Shak.

HER'MIT-AGE, n.

1. The habitation of a hermit; a house or hut with its appendages, in a solitary place, where a hermit dwells. Milton.
2. A cell in a recluse place, but annexed to an abbey. Encyc.
3. A kind of wine.

HER'MIT-A-RY, n.

A cell for the religious annexed to some abbey. Howell.

HER'MIT-ESS, n.

A female hermit. Drummond.

HER-MIT'IC-AL, a.

1. Pertaining to a hermit, or to retired life.
2. Suited to a hermit. Coventry.

HER-MO-DAC'TYL, n. [Gr. ερμης, Mercury, and δακτυλος, a finger; Mercury's finger.]

In the Materia Medica, a root brought from Turkey. It is in the shape of a heart flattened, of a white color, compact, but easy to be cut or pulverized, of a viscous sweetish taste, with a slight degree of acrimony. Some suppose it to be the root of the Colchicum variegatum; others, the root of the Iris tuberosa. It was anciently in great repute as a cathartic; but that which is now furnished has little or no cathartic quality. Encyc.

HER-MO-GE'NI-ANS, n.

A sect of ancient heretics, so called from their leader Hermogenes, who lived near the close of the second century. He held matter to be the fountain of all evil, and that souls are formed of corrupt matter. Encyc.

HERN, n.

A heron – which see.

HERN'HILL, n.

A plant.

HERN'I-A, n. [Gr. ἔρμια, from ερνος, a shooting forth, a branch.]

In surgery, a protrusion of some organ of the abdomen through an interstice in its parietes, producing a soft and slightly elastic tumor.

HERN'SHAW, n.

A heron. [Obs.] Spenser.

HE'RO, n. [L. heros, Gr. ηρως, a demigod. It coincides in elements with Ir. earr, noble, grand, a champion, and with the G. herr, D. heer, lord, master.]

1. A man of distinguished valor, intrepidity or enterprise in danger; as, a hero in arms. Cowley.
2. A great, illustrious or extraordinary person; as, a hero in learning. [Little used.]
3. In a poem, or romance, the principal personage, or the person who has the principal share in the transactions related; as Achilles in the Iliad, Ulysses in the Odyssey, and Æneas in the Æneid.
4. In pagan mythology, a hero was an illustrious person, mortal indeed, but supposed by the populace to partake of immortality, and after his death to be placed among the gods. Encyc.

HE-RO'DI-ANS, n.

A sect among the Jews, which took this name from Herod; but authors are not agreed as to their peculiar notions.

HE-RO'IC, a.

1. Pertaining to a hero or heroes; as, heroic valor.
2. Becoming a hero; bold; daring; illustrious; as, heroic action; heroic enterprises.
3. Brave; intrepid; magnanimous; enterprising; illustrious for valor; as, Hector, the heroic son of Priam; a heroic race.
4. Productive of heroes; as, a heroic line in pedigree.
5. Reciting the achievements of heroes; as, a heroic poem.
6. Used in heroic poetry or hexameter; as, heroic verse; a heroic foot. Heroic age, the age when the heroes, or those called the children of the gods, are supposed to have lived.

HE-RO'IC-AL, a.

The same as heroic. [Little used.]

HE-RO'IC-AL-LY, adv.

In the manner of a hero; with valor; bravely; courageously; intrepidly. The wall was heroically defended.

HE-RO-I-COM'IC, a. [See Hero and Comic.]

Consisting of the heroic and the ludicrous; denoting the high burlesque; as, a heroi-comic poem.

HER'O-INE, n. [her'o-in; Fr. heroine, from hero.]

A female hero; a woman of a brave spirit. [Heroess is not in use.] Dryden.

HER'O-ISM, n. [Fr. heroisme.]

The qualities of a hero; bravery; courage; intrepidity; particularly in war. Broome.

HER'ON, n. [Fr.]

A large fowl of the genus Ardea, a great devourer of fish.

HER'ON-RY, or HER'ON-SHAW, n.

A place where herons breed. Derham.

HE-RO-OL'O-GIST, n.

One who treats of heroes.

HE'RO-SHIP, n.

The character of a hero. Cowper.

HER'PES, n. [Gr. ερπης, from ερπω, to creep.]

Tetters; an eruption of the skin; erysipelas; ringworm, &c. This disease takes various names according to its form or the part affected. Coxe. Encyc. A term applied to several cutaneous eruptions from their tendency to spread or creep from one part of the skin to another. Cyc. An eruption of vesicles in small distinct clusters, accompanied with itching or tingling; including the shingles, ringworm, &c. Good.