Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
where does hem and haw come from, anyway?
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Well, we’re not a word/phrase origin site, but some of those have indeed dealt with “hem and haw.” Michael Quinions’ site is usually pretty good, and he’s got a brief article on the words here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hem1.htm
I went and googled your find, and there are a few instances online of people using “hee and haw” for “hem and haw.” Is it an eggcorn? I’m not sure. This is the kind of thing one needs to make an argument for. “Gee” (“turn right”) and “haw” (“turn left”) are commands given to horses. It’s possible, at least, that some of the writers using “hee and haw” have a vague but distorted memory of this, and are thinking that the person they’re talking about is going back and forth, left and right, on an issue. (In fact, the OED has a citation for an old phrase “haw and gee” that seems to have pretty much the same meaning.) If we can convince ourselves that a few of the writers are actually thinking in such terms, than we can say that it’s an eggcorn for those people at any rate. But I’m not wholly persuaded by my own speculation—it feels like too much of a reach, and relies on people having knowledge of terms that are getting to be obscure.
Last edited by patschwieterman (2007-10-05 17:46:20)
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