heigh

alternative hey · alternative hi · alternative Scotland hegh · alternative Scotland hech

1. archaicAn exclamation designed to call attention, give encouragement, etc.

   Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my hearts.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   1 more example

   [T]he farmer and his family were following the last loads of furniture, when a neighbour named John Marshall came up - "Well, Georgey," said he, "and soa you're leaving t'ould hoose at last?" - "Heigh, Johnny, my lad, I'm forced tull it; for that damned Boggart torments us soa, we can neither rest neet nor day for't."

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 307