In a nautical context, the word heave refers to the action of a ship rising or lifting with the waves. The past tense is hove, and if a boat hove into view, it slowly came into sight, as if gradually appearing on the horizon. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Hove into View”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Bill Hanrahan from Madison, Wisconsin.
So I have a friend who, he lives in China. We write to, we knew each other in college so a long time ago. We were both big readers. We write letter form emails to each other. And in his last one, he used the phrase, hove into view, H-O-V-E, into view, about a guy we hadn’t seen in a while. So this guy hove into view. And I remember that phrase from somewhere, I’m sure a novel. I looked it up on the Internet. There was, you know, different opinions about what the verb was and how it was used. So I wondered, do you know?
Yeah. Let me ask you a question, though. In my mind, people don’t often do that. Boats usually hove into view, not people. So that’s interesting to me. Is he a big guy?
He’s tall. He may have come over the horizon. I don’t know. Okay. I mean, to hove into view has to do with slowly coming into sight. That’s why Grant’s talking about it. I was picturing somebody opening a door really slowly or something because you don’t usually hear it in terms of people. And you mentioned, Bill, something appearing on the horizon or like he was coming up beyond the horizon, right? They ran into each other on a street in China somewhere. So, you know, he may have been making reference to that.
Yeah. How interesting. Well, yeah, hove interview is a variant of heave interview, H-E-A-V-E. And heave is a super interesting word because it’s had many, many, many meanings over the centuries. In its earliest sense, it meant to lift or raise or to heave meant to exalt. And in fact, in the 13th century, you could refer to specifically lifting a baby from a baptismal font. You heave the baby.
Oh, wow. That sounds unnecessary. What did the baby ever do?
Yeah, right. Is it crying? Is that why you’re heaving it? Stop it. Father, don’t do that. No, I don’t think it’s because they’re crying. Oh, that’s funny. Heave has been used a whole lot in terms of nautical language. You know, you think of the heave-ho of the rhythmic cry of sailors who are working to lift the anchor in rhythm. And the nautical term heave to means to bring the ship to a standstill. So it’s really kind of a, heave is kind of a Swiss army knife of words. And in the 18th century, the term heave in sight, to heave in sight meant to rise into view or become visible. Sort of like you see a ship coming, seeming to come up over the horizon. So I wonder if he just has a lot of nautical influence. He read a lot of nautical novels or something. But I could see that being the case if the streets have a little bit of hilliness to them, right? Somebody like first you see the tousled hair and then the face appears and then suddenly the person is, they’ve heathened to view. It’s like they’re rising from the street as they approach you.
Yeah, I could see that. Well, that’s great. I’m glad to know about heave. Like, I didn’t know that it was such a Swiss Army knife, as you said.
Yeah, those literary terms are even the archaic ones. Sometimes they’ve got their place, you know. Bill, that was a really interesting question. I’m glad we got to talk about it. And if you ever want to send us a letter form email, we wouldn’t say no.
Okay. All right. I just might. His email is heaving into you.
Oh, I’m into you, too. That’s right. All right. Take care of yourself. Be well out there. All right.
Thank you.
All right. Bye-bye.
