"Word of the Week" is a meme hosted by the Plain-Spoken Pen on Mondays in which we share a word that we find entertaining, enlightening, edifying, or just plain fun to say!
I used the word "heyday" in my last blogpost, and it made me wonder where it came from and just how it developed.
Looking it up, I discovered that in English, "heyday" was originally used to describe high spirits, or as a lively greeting, usually in joy or surprise, and dates back to the late 16th century. Some sources state that it's probably came from the German phrase "hei da", meaning "hey there".
Shakespeare had Hamlet use it to mean "high spirits" when (Act 3, Scene 4) he told his mother that at her mature age, one decides with cool reason, not with the excitement of passion:
You cannot call it love, for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it’s humble,
And waits upon the judgment.
Here it is in use as a negatively excited greeting in Austen's Northanger Abbey (completed 1803, published 1817):
Scarcely had they worked themselves into the quiet possession of a place, however, when her attention was claimed by John Thorpe, who stood behind her. "Heyday, Miss Morland!" said he. "What is the meaning of this? I thought you and I were to dance together."
How it moved from "hi there" to it's current usage was harder to pin down, and while I didn't get a consensus, it was suggested in a few places that "high day" (as in a really great day) became blended with the greeting, and eventually took it over so that "heyday" carried the former meaning, and the latter use/meaning fell out of fashion.
Regardless, it is certainly a fun word!
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