Etymology: Cognate with (in different stem classes) Old Frisian hat , Middle Dutch hat , Old Saxon heti , Old High German haz (Middle High German haz , German Hass ), Old Icelandic hatr , Old Swedish hat (Swedish hat ), Old Danish hath (Danish had ), Gothic hatis , apparently < the same Indo-European base as Oscan cadeis (genitive singular) ill will, (with suffix) Early Irish caiss hatred, Old Welsh, Welsh cas hatred, and (with different ablaut grades) Avestan sādra- calamity, misfortune, ancient Greek κῆδος , (Doric) κᾶδος care, grief, mourning, Welsh cawdd anger, although some of the details are unclear and the etymology has been disputed. Compare later hate n., hatred n. Compare also hate v.In Old English and Old Saxon the word inflects as a strong masculine i-stem and shows i-mutation of the stem vowel caused by the inflectional ending, whereas in the other older Germanic languages the word inflects as a strong a-stem (without mutation). Such a pattern of development is typical of former neuter s -stems, the noun class to which the word appears to have belonged in Indo-European (compare discussion of the type at rother n.); the r reflex of the formative element (Germanic z ) is preserved in North Germanic, but has been lost in West Germanic. Nouns derived from the base of the Germanic noun frequently show influence from the cognate verb and, especially when showing an unmutated stem vowel, are sometimes not easy to distinguish from derivatives of the verb (see hate v., and compare the Germanic parallels (with long stem vowel) cited at hate n.). The forms in West Germanic languages are chiefly masculine (in Old High German also neuter); in North Germanic and Gothic they are neuter. The early Old English (Mercian) form heatas (accusative plural) appears to show back mutation of the stem vowel before the vowel of the inflectional ending; if so, it probably represents a spelling for (otherwise unattested) *heotas . However, it could perhaps alternatively be interpreted as showing the reflex of æ , reflecting a form of the stem without i-mutation. A few Old English and early Middle English spellings showing æ for the stem vowel have been included at this entry rather than at hate n. (an alteration of this word after hate v.), because they probably show inverted spellings for e , although it is difficult to exclude entirely the possibility that they might reflect an unmutated vowel; compare discussion at hate n.

Etymology: By-form of hote n., hight n.³, conformed to the verbal inflection hete of hight v.¹: compare behete n.