The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage - Noel's ESL ...

H
habeas corpus This somewhat obscure Latin formula, requiring that “you shall
produce the person (in court)”, is the beginning of several writs in English law.
It represents an important civil liberty, obliging anyone who holds a prisoner in
custody to bring him or her to court, and state the reasons for their detention. The
court then examines the law under which the person is held and decides whether
imprisonment is justified or not. The process is designed to prevent people being
imprisoned by the state without trial. On occasions it is also used to prevent a
citizen holding another person captive, and to ensure that custody arrangements
for the child of divorced parents are properly observed.
Another Latin phrase which obliges people to appear in court is the sub poena
“under penalty”. Once again it’s the opening phrase of a writ, one which summons
the defendant of a case (and those nominated as witnesses) to appear before the
judge. As a noun and verb subpoena is set solid, and can also be spelled subpena
in the US (see further under oe). As a verb, its past form is normally subpoenaed,
though a case could be made for subpoena’d: see further under -ed.
háček This accent, like an inverted circumflex, is used in a few east European
languages, including Czech and Croatian. In English it’s sometimes referred to as
the “wedge”. The háček is used to extend the number of consonant symbols (or
graphemes), so that č has the sound “tch”, while a plain c sounds as “s”. In Czech
where it’s used most extensively, the háček creates alternative forms for c, n, r, s
and z, upper and lower case, and also for the vowel e. The háček appears in English
writing only in connection with foreign personal names, such as Beneš, Dubček
and Dvořák.
hachure or hatching Both these refer to lines of shading. Parallel lines of
hachure were used on nineteenth century maps to show the gradient of a slope,
with thick ones for a steep slope and fine ones where it was gentle. Modern maps
use contour lines with the actual heights stated. Hatching refers to the parallel or
crossed lines used to show light and shade on drawings, engravings and diagrams.
A much older word, it was applied to inlay work in the fifteenth century, and to
engraving in the sixteenth century. Yet both hachure and the anglicised hatching
derive from the French verb hacher “chop up”. Other related words are hash and
hatchet.
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