Chapter Hippocras to Hobgoblin of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

(B.C. 484-408). So called by Cicero.
   The Father of Ecclesiastical History. Eusebius of Caesare (264- 340).
   Father of French History. André Duchesne (1584-1640).
   Father of Historic Painting. Polygnotos of Thaos (flourished B.C. 463-435).

History of Croyland Abbey by Ingulphus, and its continuation to 1118 by Peter of Blois, were proved to be literary impositions by Sir F. Palgrave in the Quarterly Review, vol. xxxiv., No. 67.

Histrionic is from the Etruscan word hister (a dancer), histriones (ballet-dancers). Hence, histrio in Latin means a stage-player, and our word histrionic, pertaining to the drama. History is quite another word, being the Greek historia, histor, a judge, allied to histamai, to know.

Hit A great hit. A piece of good luck. From the game hit and miss, or the game of backgammon, where "two hits equal a gammon."

Hit it Off (To). To describe a thing tersely and epigrammatically; to make a sketch truthfully and quickly. The French say, "Ce peintre vous saisit la resemblance en un clin d'oeil. "
   To hit it off together. To agree together, or suit each other.

Hit the Nail on the Head (To). (See Head .)

Hitch There is some hitch. Some impediment. A horse is said to have a hitch in his gait when he is lame. (Welsh, hecian, to halt or limp.)
   To hitch. To get on smoothly; to fit in consistently: as, "You and I hitch on well together;" "These two accounts do not hitch in with each other." A lame horse goes about jumping, and to jump together is to be in accord. So the two meanings apparently contradictory hitch together. Compare prevent, meaning to aid and to resist.

Hivites (2 syl.). The students of St. Bee's College, Cumberland. (Bee-hives.)

Hoang The ancient title of the Chinese kings, meaning "sovereign lord." (See King.)

Hoare (37, Fleet Street, London). The golden bottle over the fanlight is said to contain the half-crown with which James Hoare started in business.

Hoarstone A landmark. A stone marking out the boundary of an estate.

Hoax (See Canard .)

Hob of a grate. From the Anglo-Saxon verb habban (to hold). The chimney-corner, where at one time a settle stood on each side, was also called "the hob."

Hob and Nob together. To drink as cronies, to clink glasses, to drink tête-à-tête. In the old English houses there was a hob at each corner of the hearth for heating the beer, or holding what one wished to keep hot. This was from the verb habban (to hold). The little round table set at the elbow was called a nob; hence to hob-nob was to drink snugly and cosily in the chimney-corner, with the beer hobbed, and a little nobtable set in the snuggery. (See Hob Nob.)

Hobbema
   The English Hobbema. John Crome, the elder (of Norwich), whose last words were, "O Hobbema, Hobbema, how I do love thee!"
   The Scotch Hobbema. P. Nasmyth, a Scotch landscape painter (born 1831).

Hobbididance (4 syl.). The prince of dumbness, and one of the five fiends that possessed "poor Tom." (Shakespeare: King Lear, iv. 1.)

Hobbinol The shepherd (Gabriel Harvey, the poet, 1545-1630) who relates a song in praise of Eliza, queen of shepherds (Queen Elizabeth). (Spenser: Shepherd's Calendar.)