When something’s in its heyday, its in its prime. What does that have to do with hay? Nothing, actually. It goes back to the 1500s, when heyday and similar-sounding words were simply expressions of celebration or joy. Grant is especially fond of the Oxford English Dictionary‘s first citation for this term, from the John Skelton’s Magnyfycence, published around 1529: “Rutty bully Ioly rutterkin heyda.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Heyday Origins”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Martha.
Hi.
This is Jim Sobeck.
Hi, Jim.
Where are you calling from?
McCordsville, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis.
How can we help you?
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were watching television, and some event had happened, and I really don’t remember which one it was, but one of the air personalities made the comment, I guess their party is going to have a heyday with that.
And my initial response was, yes, they will.
And then I thought, how would I know that?
Because I don’t really know the origin of the term heyday.
Oh, that’s right.
But I said to myself, I think I know who does, so I’m going to get in touch with the way with words.
And how are you spelling heyday?
Well, initially, I was spelling it in my mind, H-E-Y space D-A-Y.
But it’s occurred to me since then that the origins may speak to H-A-Y.
And perhaps it’s a farm reference from years and years ago.
Like making hay while the sun shines?
Very much like that.
But I never really thought to figure out what the term hay day is.
It’s part of my vocabulary.
It is H-E-Y, so you had it right the first time out, H-E-Y-D-A-Y.
It’s usually these days spelled as a single word rather than as an open compound.
And it’s got an interesting and kind of opaque history.
It comes up in the 1500s as an exclamation or interjection of surprise or celebration or joy.
And the first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary, I just love it to death.
Ruddy, bully, jolly rudder can heyday.
Rudder, baby buggy bumpers what?
It’s a series of nonsense, and heyday is part of that nonsense.
And as you read the citations and you look in the historical record, just old published books, you begin to see that it’s the kind of thing that we might throw out.
Like, you know, wowza, you know, or woo-woo, woo-hoo.
Yeah, it’s kind of like that.
It’s when something goes well for you.
And then by the late 1500s, it starts to be used as a noun or even an adjective.
So it’s talking about the moment or the place of celebration, the state of being excited.
So you are in your heyday.
You are excited at the moment.
So it goes from being an interjection to a noun.
And then it starts to move on.
And by the 1700s, it’s fairly well established.
Also, heyday is a term for the best possible time of something.
So the heyday of newspapers was the 1930s, or the heyday of public radio was the 2010s, or what have you like that.
And so we’ve got this slow change over time across centuries as it moves on.
And what strikes me about it, there’s a note here, and most dictionaries say that it might be related to a German term, hey there, which is kind of a greeting.
But what really strikes me, with the limited amount of Swedish I know, that there’s a word for goodbye, which is something like heyda in Swedish, and you find very similar interjections in all of the Germanic languages.
They don’t always have the same role, so I’m wondering, and cannot confirm if there’s a root there, where all these different languages all come from the same kind of one expression that slowly is morphed.
So in Swedish it means goodbye, and in German it means hey there, and in English it means like woohoo.
And none of it refers to any particular event.
No, no, there’s no one person, there’s no one place, there’s no one time.
There’s not even like really a popularizer, which I love about that kind of language.
The language that lurks there and comes out of daily usage and doesn’t have to be chronicled as an event or a phenomenon is to me the most genuine language.
It exists because it needs to exist.
It exists because there is a use for it, not because it’s cute or funny or because some famous person is pushing it along.
Well, my best bet was going to be that it was an agricultural term, but clearly that’s not it.
Yeah, I don’t think so.
I will have to look up at the Old English Dictionary reference that you called out, because I’m not sure I could spell that or repeat it either.
We’ll put it on the website, all right?
Yes, sir. Thank you very much.
All right. Thanks for calling, Jim.
Bye-bye.
You’re welcome. Goodbye.
Take care.
Bye.
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