hayseed and heartthrob

I am in the process of developing a "celebrity" spelling bee which will be held in Portland (OR) in January, 2007. "The committee" adopted my suggestion that I come up with a list of 1000 words which all contestants would receive before the competition and from which the first few rounds would be taken. By so doing, we would be showing to whoever had eyes to see that studying words not only gets you through the first few rounds of a contest but has a value in its own right.

But as I am going through the dictionary to make up the list, I become aware that there are just too many good English words that can't be included on the list (because they are too easy) which, nevertheless, encourage you to stop and listen to them. This and the next essay introduce you to a handful of such terms. A few beginning with "h" are hayseed, hearththrob, high five, high jinks, high octane, hllbilly and hizzoner. You could come up with others, I am sure, but thanks for following me on this little journey.

Hayseed

The evolution of the word hayseed from the grass seed shaken out of hay to a country bumpkin shows how good writers have the power to shape our language. The OED attests the word as early as 1577 where someone, writing a book on husbandry, says: "Some doo cast Hey seede, geathered from the Heyloaft or racks, over the grounde." The term stayed vibrant in agricultural circles, as can be seen by this 1846 quotation: "With rye grass and clovers..and what are termed hay seeds, a permanent pasture of the best quality..cannot be made." I just thought that those of you wanting to make permanent pastures might want to know that...

But then, in 1851, Herman Melville changed everything, by introducing the word 'Hay-Seed' to describe a rustic person. In Moby Dick, Ismael notices a lad from Vermont who would like to sign up to work on a whale ship in New Bedford (MA), and he says in derision, "Ah, poor Hay-Seed...You should see what comical things he does upon reaching the seaport." Vermont was once, along with Maine, the rural backwater of New England but has now taken its revenge on New Bedford or Fall River or a host of other MA coastal cities by becomikng the romantic hideaway for strangely creative people and Green Easterners. Melville's use of the term caught on, and by the end of the century it was in common usage. From 1896: "His 'hay seed' following sent him to the US Senate" or, from 1901: "It is the habit of the comic journals to print pictures about the 'hay-seeds' who are gulled by confidence men."

Just as the English dictionary has all kinds of words for "bad" women (harridan, trollop, termagant, virago, shrew..I won't mention too many, lest you get ideas about me), so there are some words describing the rustic one coming to town. I think that the social reality of America about 100-130 years ago, where the cities had all the jobs and the sons and daughters of rural America flocked to the cities, not only provided very good workers but also made for incredibly rich humor. New words were the way that some of this humor was demonstrated.

Before we leave this word for "heartthrob," I want to pause on the notion of inventing words. Shakespeare was probably one of the most distinguished authors who introduced new words into our language. One of them which is on my mind today is ensky. Just as we have words like enmesh (to catch in a net), engorge (to completely fill), so Shakespeare invented the term ensky, to mean "to exalt" or "to place in the sky." He says, in MfM, "I hold you as a thing en-skied, and sainted." It is a tremendously useful word, even though it is rarely used anymore. Some person might be emblazoned on our hearts, but s/he can also be enskied in the firmament of famous people. Can't you just hear it also as a term of gentle derision-- "The high-enskied XXXX (fill in the blank) came crashing down unceremoniously after the defeat."

Heartthrob

Let's finish this essay with heartthrob, another word whose meaning has evolved with time. Though the first use of the word in 1839 was in a medical context, by 1846 John Greenleaf Whittier could speak of the "heartthrob of the free." The misanthropic character of Jack London came out in this 1912 quotation: "I've not much heart-throb left for my fellow beings." But by 1914 the word began to be used figuratively. "The 'jacket' of the 'latest' fiction tells of 'thrills' and 'heart-throbs.'" Thus, the word evolved from the simple measurement of heart beats to the excitement manifest by the rapid beating of the heart. But still, by the time of WWI, the word had more to do with a story that was thrilling than a person who might make one's heart leap. By the late 1920s, however, in the age of show girls and gatsby-esque living, one had references to a "Heart-throb" poet along side of the heartthrob thriller. But by the 1940s the heartthrob was identified with a male, usually an entertainer or movie star, who would flit across the flickering screen and whoosh away the heart of women. Though there are a few references to women as heart throbs on the Internet, that category seems to be reserved primarily for men. Any ideas why this might be the case?

I hope to move more quickly in the next essay.

2099