heah

heah (not comparable)

1. (US, historical, colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of here, representing African-American Vernacular English.
   • 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Virago Press (2018), page 46:

     ‘Yeah, uh store right heah in town wid everything in it you needs.’

heah (not comparable)

1. (US, historical, colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of here, representing African-American Vernacular English.

• theah
• wheah

• hēh
• hēa — adverb

From Proto-West Germanic *hauh, from Proto-Germanic *hauhaz.

Cognate with Old Frisian hāh, Old Saxon hōh, Old High German hōh, Old Dutch hōh, Old Norse hár, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃 (hauhs).

• IPA^(key): /xæ͜ɑːx/, [hæ͜ɑːx]

hēah (comparative hīerra, superlative hīehst)

1. high, tall
   • Caedmon's metrical paraphrase

     ...seoððan þū þonne hafast handum āmetene hū hēh and dēop hell inneweard sēo, grim græfhūs, gong ricene tō...

     ...then, after thou hast with thy hands measured how high and deep hell is within, the grim grave-house, go forthwith to...

2. exalted, important
3. proud
4. deep
5. right (as opposed to left)
6. (in compounds) main, principal, arch-

   hēahfæder ― patriarch

   hēahenġel ― arch-angel

   hēahcleofa ― main chamber

7. (in compounds) denotes intensification, completion or perfection

   hēahfæst ― permanent, immutable

• dēop (“deep”)
• niþerlīċ (“low”)

• hēalīċe
• hēahstede
• hēahweġ

• Middle English: heigh
  • English: high
    • Sranan Tongo: hei
    • → German: high
  • Scots: heich
  • Yola: heigh, heighe, heegh, hia, hie
• Scots: he-, hey-