A Dictionary of Cont..

verb or adjective, as in he ha!f finished the work.
It is used in this way in expressions of time, such
as at half past five. We may also say one half or
a half in sentences of this kind, but the qualifying
word is not necessary and is usually omitted.
One half may be written with or without a hyphen.
7wo halves is not a fraction and should
not bc hyphenated.
half-breed; half-caste. See mulatto.
half the battle. Said of something which contributes
largely to success, it is half the battle is
already a clichC, even though the earliest occurrence
of the phrase (Oxford English Dictionary)
is 1849, in Captain Marryat’s Valerie (Youth
. . . is more than half the battle).
hallelujah, “praise ye the Lord,” is the preferred
spelling. But halleluiah, alleluia, alleluiah, and
alleluia are also recognized.
halloo. See hello.
halves. See half.
hammer and tongs, to go at something. As a term
for attacking something, usually a piece of work
or an argument, with great force and violence
and an attendant clatter, to go at it hammer and
tongs is now a clicht. A term from the smithy
has very little actuality for most English-speaking
people now and is bound to be hollow as
well as worn out.
hamstring. The past tense is hamstringed or hamstrung.
The participle is also hamstringed or
hamstrung. Theoretically this verb, which means
to cut the hamstring, should be formed regularly,
with the past tense and participle hamstringed.
But it has been influenced by the verb string and
the form hamstrung is now generally preferred
to hamstringed. Both forms are acceptable.
hand in glove. To say of those in intimate association
that they are hand in glove is to employ
a clichC. The older form was hand and glove and
this makes better sense-i.e., they are as close
as hand and glove. Hand in glove may have been
a confusion of hand and glove and hand in hand.
There is a suggestion in hand in glove that the
intimacy is slightly nefarious, conspiratorial, up
to no good.
handicap; hindrance. Handicap is a shortening of
hand-in-the-cap, an old game of wagering and
forfeits in which the contestants put their hands
in a cap and drew out various amounts of money.
The game is described unmistakably in Piers
Plowman (1362-1399) under the name of Newe
Faire, though the earliest instance of handicap
(Oxford English Dictionary) is 1653-a salutary
warning for those who would construct social
history from linguistics or vice versa. From
the game it came to mean some extra weight or
other condition imposed on a superior in an athletic
event to equalize the chances of an inferior,
and from that it came to mean any incumbrance
or disability that makes success more difficult.
Thus it is common today to refer to lame children
as handicapped children, though there is no
suggestion (unless a pathetic flattery was originally
intended) that they are necessarily superior
children reduced, by their misfortune, to equality
with other children.
A hindrance is that which obstructs or pre-
213 haply
vents action, an incumbrance, a check, a restraint.
Hindered children would be a more
accurate, if less kind, description of those that
are lame. To many employments youth, for
example, is a hindrance; but it is not a handicap.
handle; manage. To handle is primarily, and
plainly, to touch or feel with the hands, to
manipulate (The lieutenant handled the detonator
gingerly). Some purists have maintained
that this is the full scope of the word, that it
should be confined to the act of touching with
the hands, but language doesn’t accept any such
confines and handle and manage are used interchangeably
to mean the control or influence of
persons, objects, or operations (He can handle
the most dificult clients or He can manage the
most di#icult clients). Of course where the
meaning is that the hands are used (His ability
to handle the ball soon made him a majorleague
pitcher), handle is preferable. Manage
suggests a less purely physical control or direction
(He manages these afluirs with great
finesse); and where it means, as it increasingly
does, the exercise of managerial functions (The
business is well managed and has shown excellent
profits), handle will not serve as a synonym.
handle with kid gloves. As a term for delicate
treatment or consideration, to handle someone
with kid gloves is now a clich6.
hand-me-downs seem originally to have been cheap
or ready-made garments, something handed
down off the shelf at request instead of being
made to measure. The English phrase is reachme-downs.
Today, however, in America, the
phrase means second-hand clothing, something
handed down from the first user.
handwriting on the wall. As a term for a warning
of doom, the handwriting on the wall, drawn
from the apparition at Belshazzar’s impious
feast, should be used sparingly.
hang. The past tense is hung or hanged. The participle
is also hung or hanged. At one time these
words were used in a slightly different sense.
One would say we hung the picture but the picture
hanged on the wall. Today hanged is used
only to mean killed by hanging. Some grammarians
believe that the form hanged must always
be used when this is what is meant. But the
form hung is being used more and more in this
sense, as in I have not the least objection in life
to a rogue being hung, and seems to be driving
hanged from the language.
hang on Iike grim death is a clichC.
hangar; hanger. A hangar is a shed or shelter for
aircraft. A hanger is that which or one who
hangs things, as a coathanger, pothanger, or
paperhanger. It is also the name for a light sabre
of the 17th and 18th centuries, often worn at
sea. Gulliver had one.
haply; happily. Haply, now archaic, means by
luck, chance, or accident (Haply some hoaryheaded
swain may say,/ “Oft have we seen
him . . .I’ ). Happily, once the same word as
huply, means by good luck, favorable chance,
or in a pleasurable manner (Happily the bullet
just missed him, The child sang happily in the
swing),