Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HIS-TO'RI-ER, n.

A historian. [Obs.]

HIS'TO-RI-FY, v.t.

To relate; to record in history. [Not used.] Sidney.

HIS-TO-RI-OG'RA-PHER, n. [Gr. ἱστορια, history, and γραφω, to write.]

A historian; a writer of history; particularly, a professed historian; an officer employed to write the history of a prince or state; as, the historiographer of his Britannic majesty.

HIS-TO-RI-OG'RA-PHY, n.

The art or employment of a historian.

HIS-TO-RI-OL'O-GY, n.

A discourse on history, or the knowledge of history. [Not in use.]

HIS'TO-RY, n. [Gr. ἱστορια; L. Sp. and Port. historia; It. istoria; Fr. histoire; Ir. sdair, stair; Sax. stair, ster, probably from the Latin; W. ysdori, history, matter of record, what is of concern or in mind, from ysdawr, an object of care or concern, from dawr, to care, to be concerned, to regard. The Greek ἱστωρ signifies knowing, learned, and ἱστορεω is rendered to inquire, to explore, to learn by inspection or inquiry. This would seem to be connected with W. ystyriaw, to consider, to regard or take notice. History and story are the same word differently written.]

1. An account of facts, particularly of facts respecting nations or states; a narration of events in the order in which they happened, with their causes and effects. History differs from annals. Annals relate simply the facts and events of each year, in strict chronological order, without any observations of the annalist. History regards less strictly the arrangement of events under each year, and admits the observations of the writer. This distinction however is not always regarded with strictness. History is of different kinds, or treats of different subjects; as, a history of government, or political history; history of the Christian church, or ecclesiastical history; history of war and conquests, or military history; history of law; history of commerce; history of the crusades, &c. In these and similar examples, history is written narrative or relation. What is the history of nations, but a narrative of the follies, crimes and miseries of man?
2. Narration; verbal relation of facts or events; story. We listen with pleasure to the soldier or the seaman, giving a history of his adventures. What histories of toil could I declare? Pope.
3. Knowledge of facts and events. History – is necessary to divines. Watts.
4. Description; an account of things that exist; as, natural history, which comprehends a description of the works of nature, particularly of animals, plants and minerals; a history of animals, or zoology; a history of plants.
5. An account of the origin, life and actions of an individual person. We say, we have a concise history of the prisoner in the testimony offered to the court. A formal written account of an individual's life, is called biography.

HIS'TO-RY-PIECE, n.

A representation of any remarkable event in painting, which exhibits the actors, their actions, and the attending events to the eye, by figures drawn to the life. This species of painting is called historical painting.

HIS'TRI-ON, n.

A player. [Not in use.] Pope.

HIS-TRI-ON'IC, or HIS-TRI-ON'IC-AL, a. [L. histrionicus, from histrio, a buffoon, an actor, or stage-player.]

Pertaining to a buffoon or comedian, or to a pantomime, who represents events or characters by gestures and dancing; belonging to stage-playing; befitting a theater; theatrical. Johnson. Encyc.

HIS-TRI-ON'IC-AL-LY, adv.

In the manner of a buffoon or pantomime; theatrically.

HIS'TRI-O-NISM, n.

The acts or practice of buffoons or pantomimes; stage-playing. Southey.

HIT, n.

1. A striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke or blow that touches any thing. So he the famed Cilician fencer prais'd, And at each hit with wonder seems amazed. Dryden.
2. A chance; a casual event; as, a lucky hit.
3. A lucky chance; a fortunate event. Dryden.
4. A term in back-gammon. Three hits are equal to a gammon.

HIT, v.i.

1. To strike; to meet or come in contact; to clash; followed by against or on. If bodies be mere extension, how can they move and hit one against another. Locke. Corpuscles meeting with or hitting on those bodies, become conjointed with them. Woodward.
2. To meet or fall on by good luck; to succeed by accident; not to miss. And oft it hits / Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits. Shak.
3. To strike or reach the intended point; to succeed. And millions miss for one that hits. Swift. To hit on or upon, to light on; to come to or fall on by chance; to meet or find, as by accident. None of them hit upon the art. Addison.

HIT, v.t. [pret. and pp. hit. Sw. hitta, Dan. hitter, to find, to meet, that is, to come to, to come or fall on. This word illustrates the signification of find.]

1. To strike or touch, either with or without force. We hit a thing with the finger, or with the head; a cannon ball hits a mast, or a wall.
2. To strike or touch a mark with any thing directed to that object; not to miss. The archers hit him. 1 Sam. xxxi.
3. To reach; to attain to. Birds learning tunes, and their endeavors to hit the notes right. Locke.
4. To suit; to be conformable. – Melancholy, / Whose saintly visage is too bright / To hit the sense of human sight. Milton.
5. To strike; to touch properly; to offer the right bait. There you hit him – that argument never fails with him. Dryden. To hit off, to strike out; to determine luckily. Temple. #2. To represent or describe exactly. To hit out, to perform by good luck. [Little used.] Spenser.

HITCH, n.

1. A catch; any thing that holds, as a hook; an impediment.
2. The act of catching, as on a hook, &c.
3. In seamen's language, a knot or noose in a rope for fastening it to a ring or other object; as, a clove hitch; a timber hitch, &c. Mar. Dict.
4. A stop or sudden halt in walking or moving.

HITCH, v.i. [Ar. حَاكَ haika, to hitch along; W. hecian, to halt, hop, or limp, or hictaw, to snap, to catch suddenly. Both may be of one family.]

1. To move by jerks, or with stops; as, in colloquial language, to hitch along. Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time / Slides in a verse, or hitches in a rhyme. Pope.
2. To become entangled; to be caught or hooked. South.
3. To hit the legs together in going, as horses. [Not used in the United States.]
4. To hop; to spring on one leg. [Local.] Grose.
5. To move or walk. Grose.

HITCH, v.t.

1. To hook; to catch by a hook; as, to hitch a bridle.
2. To fasten by hitching; as, to hitch a horse by a bridle, or to hitch him to a post. New England.

HITCH'ED, pp.

Caught; hooked; fastened.

HITCH'EL, v.t.

To hatchel. [Not used. See Hatchel.]

HITCH'ING, n.

1. [1844] A fastening, as with a string or strap to a ring, hook, or other fixture.
2. [1841] A fastening in a harness.

HITCH'ING, ppr.

Hooking; fastening.

HITHE, n. [Sax. hyth.]

A port or small haven; as in Queenhithe and Lambhithe, now Lambeth. [English.]

HITH'ER, a.

Nearest; toward the person speaking; as, on the hither side of a hill; the hither end of the building.

HITH'ER, adv. [Sax. hither or hider; Goth. hidre; Dan. hid; Sw. hit.]

1. To this place; used with verbs signifying motion; as, to come hither; to proceed hither; to bring hither.
2. Hither and thither, to this place and that.
3. To this point; to this argument or topic; to this end. [Little used, and not to be encouraged.] Hither we refer whatever belongs to the highest perfection of man. Hooker.

HITH'ER-MOST, a.

Nearest on this side. Hale.