Meanings
present singular third person heryeth · participle present herying · participle past heryed · past heryed · alternative herry
- To praise, to glorify, to honour.
Thenot, now nis the time of merimake. / Nor Pan to herye, nor with love to playe.
1579, Edmund Spenser, “The Shepheardes Calender: November”, in Marie Loughlin, Sandra Bell, Patricia Brace, editors, The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose, published 2012, page 7971 more example
And Lord God, what herying is it to bilden thee a church of dead stones, and robben thy quicke churches of their bodilich liuelood?
1563, John Foxe, Fox's Book of Martyrs: The Acts and Monuments of the Church, volume 1, published 1851, page 563
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱens-“to speak in a florid, solemn style, attest, witness”
- Proto-Germanic*hazjaną“to call, praise”
- Old Englishherian“to extol, praise, commend, help”
- Middle Englishherien
- Englishherye
From Middle English herien, heryen, from Old English herian (“to extol, praise, commend, help”), from Proto-Germanic *hazjaną (“to call, praise”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to speak in a florid, solemn style, attest, witness”). Cognate with Middle High German haren (“to call, shout”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hazjan, “to praise”), Latin cēnseō (“inspect, appraise, estimate”, verb), Latin cēnsus (“estimation”); see censor, census.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
herye. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/herye
“herye.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/herye. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “herye,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/herye.
Source: herye on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.