Online Etymology Dictionary

hegemonic (adj.): 1650s, from Greek hegemonikos "related to a leader, capable of command," from hegemon (see hegemony). Earlier in same sense was hegemonical (1610s).
hegemonism (n.): 1965, in reference to a policy of political domination, on model of imperialism; see hegemony + -ism.
hegemonist (n.): "one who advocates a political policy of hegemony," 1898, from hegemony + -ist.
hegemony (n.): 1560s, from Greek hegemonia "leadership, a leading the way, a going first;" also "the authority or sovereignty of one city-state over a number of others," as Athens in Attica, Thebes in Boeotia; from hegemon "leader," from hegeisthai "to lead," perhaps originally "to track down," from PIE *sag-eyo-, from root *sag- "to seek out, track down, trace" (see seek). Originally of predominance of one city state or another in Greek history; in reference to modern situations from 1860, at first of Prussia in relation to other German states.
hegira (n.): 1580s, the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina (July 16, 622 C.E.), from which event the Islamic calendar reckons, from Medieval Latin hegira, from Arabic hijrah "departure," from hajara "to depart."
heh: mid-15c., originally an exclamation of emotions such as sorrow or surprise. As the sound of a light laugh, by 1808.
heifer (n.): Old English heahfore, West Saxon; Northumbrian hehfaro, heffera (plural), of unknown origin, not found outside English. The first element seems to be heah "high," common in Old English compounds with a sense of "great in size." The second element may be related to Old English fearr "bull," or to Old English faran "to go" (giving the whole a sense of "high-stepper"); but there are serious sense difficulties with both conjectures. Liberman offers this alternative:
Old English seems to have had the word *hægfore 'heifer.' The first element (*hæg-) presumably meant 'enclosure' (as do haw and hedge), whereas -fore was a suffix meaning 'dweller, occupant' ....
In modern use, "a female that has not yet calved," as opposed to a cow, which has calved, and a calf, which is an animal of either sex not more than a year old. As derisive slang for "a woman, girl" it dates from 1835.
heigh-ho: 1550s, exclamation to express yawning, sighing, etc.
height (n.): Old English hiehþu, Anglian hehþo "highest part or point, summit; the heavens, heaven," from root of heah "high" (see high) + -itha, Germanic abstract noun suffix. Cf. Old Norse hæð, Middle Dutch hoochte, Old High German hohida, Gothic hauhiþa "height." Meaning "distance from bottom to top" is from late 13c. Meaning "excellence, high degree of a quality" is late 14c. The modern pronunciation with -t emerged 13c., but wasn't established till 19c., and heighth is still colloquial.
heighten (v.): mid-15c., heightenen "to exalt, to honor or raise to high position," from height + -en (1). Related: Heightened; heightening.
heighth: see height.
Heimlich maneuver: 1975, named for U.S. physician Henry Jay Heimlich (b. 1920).
Heinie (n.): also Heine, as a typical name of a German man, 1904, North American slang, from pet form of common German masc. proper name Heinrich (see Henry). Brought to Europe in World War I by Canadian soldiers (British soldiers called the adversary Fritz).
heinie (n.): slang for "the buttocks," by 1930s, probably a contraction of hind end.
heinous (adj.): late 14c., from Old French hainos "inconvenient, awkward; hateful, unpleasant; odious" (Modern French haineux), from haine "hatred," from hair "to hate," from Frankish *hatjan (cf. Old Saxon haton, Old English hatian "to hate;" see hate (v.)). Related: Heinously; heinousness.
heir (n.): c.1300, from Anglo-French heir, Old French oir "heir, successor," from Latin heredem (nominative heres) "heir, heiress" (see heredity). Heir apparent (late 14c.) has the French order of noun-adjective, though it was not originally so written in English. It is the heir of one still alive whose right is clear. After death the heir apparent becomes the heir-at-law.
heiress (n.): 1650s, from heir + -ess.
heirless (adj.): c.1400, from heir + -less.
heirloom (n.): early 15c., ayre lome, a hybrid from heir + loom in its original but now otherwise obsolete sense of "implement, tool." Technically, some piece of property that by will or custom passes down with the real estate.
Heisenberg: in reference to German physicist Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), pioneer of quantum mechanics. His "uncertainty principle" (deduced in 1927) is that an electron may have a determinate position, or a determinate velocity, but not both.
heist (v.): 1927 (in heister "shoplifter, thief"), American English slang, probably a dialectal alteration of hoist "lift," in sense of "shoplift," also in older British slang "to lift another on one's shoulders to help him break in." As a noun, from 1936.
held: Old English heold, past tense and p.p. of hold.
Helen: fem. proper name, from French Hélène, from Latin Helena, from Greek Helene, fem. proper name, probably fem. of helenos "the bright one." Among the top 10 popular names for girl babies in the U.S. born between 1890 and 1934.
Helena: fem. proper name, Latin form of Helen.
heliacal (adj.): "pertaining to the sun," c.1600, with -al (1) and Greek heliakos "of the sun," from helios "sun" (see sol). The heliacal year is reckoned from the heliacal rising of Sirius; thus it also is known as the canicular year.
helical (adj.): "spiral-shaped," 1590s, from Latin helicem (see helix) + -al (1).
Helicon: 1520s, from Greek Helikon, mountain in Boeotia, sacred to the Muses, in which arose the fountains of Aganippe and Hippocrene. Lit. "the tortuous mountain," from helix (genitive helikos) "spiral" (see helix).
helicopter (n.): 1861, from French hélicoptère "device for enabling airplanes to rise perpendicularly," thus "flying machine propelled by screws." The idea was to gain lift from spiral aerofoils, and it didn't work. Used by Jules Verne and the Wright Brothers, the word transferred to helicopters in the modern sense when those were developed in the 1920s. From Greek helix (genitive helikos) "spiral" (see helix) + pteron "wing" (see pterodactyl). Nativized in Flemish as wentelwiek "with rotary vanes."
helio-: word-forming element meaning "sun," from Greek helio-, comb. form of helios "sun" (see sol).
heliocentric (adj.): 1680s, from helio- + -centric.
heliograph (n.): product of a certain type of engraving process, 1853, from helio- + -graph "something written," from Greek graphe "writing," from graphein "to write, express by written characters," earlier "to draw, represent by lines drawn" (see -graphy). Earlier, "a description of the sun" (1706, implied in heliographic). Heliography (1845 in the engraving sense) also (1840) was an early term for what came to be called photography.
heliotrope (n.): "plant which turns its flowers and leaves to the sun," 1620s, from French héliotrope (14c.) and directly from Latin heliotropium, from Greek heliotropion, from helios "sun" (see sol) + tropos "turn" (see trope). The word was applied c.1000-1600 in Latin form to sunflowers and marigolds. Related: Heliotropic.
heliotropism (n.): 1854, from heliotrope + -ism.
heliport (n.): 1948, from helicopter + second element abstracted from airport.
helium (n.): 1868, coined from Greek helios "sun" (see sol), because the element was detected in the solar spectrum during the eclipse of Aug. 18, 1868, by English astronomer Sir Joseph N. Lockyer (1836-1920) and English chemist Sir Edward Frankland (1825-1899). It was not actually obtained until 1895; it was assumed before that to be an alkali metal, hence the ending in -ium.
helix (n.): "a spiral thing," 1560s, from Latin helix "spiral," from Greek helix (genitive helikos), related to eilein "to turn, twist, roll," from PIE *wel-ik-, from root *wel- "to turn, revolve" (see vulva).
hell (n.): Old English hel, helle, "nether world, abode of the dead, infernal regions," from Proto-Germanic *haljo "the underworld" (cf. Old Frisian helle, Dutch hel, Old Norse hel, German Hölle, Gothic halja "hell") "the underworld," literally "concealed place" (cf. Old Norse hellir "cave, cavern"), from PIE *kel- "to cover, conceal, save" (see cell).

The English word may be in part from Old Norse Hel (from Proto-Germanic *halija "one who covers up or hides something"), in Norse mythology the name of Loki's daughter, who rules over the evil dead in Niflheim, the lowest of all worlds (nifl "mist"). Transfer of a pagan concept and word to a Christian idiom. In Middle English, also of the Limbus Patrum, place where the Patriarchs, Prophets, etc. awaited the Atonement. Used in the KJV for Old Testament Hebrew Sheol and New Testament Greek Hades, Gehenna. Used figuratively for "state of misery, any bad experience" since at least late 14c. As an expression of disgust, etc., first recorded 1670s.

Expression Hell in a handbasket is c.1941, perhaps a revision of earlier heaven in a handbasket (c.1913), with a sense of "easy passage" to whichever destination. Hell or high water is apparently a variation of between the devil and the deep blue sea. To wish someone would go to hell is in Shakespeare ("Merchant of Venice"). Snowball's chance in hell "no chance" is from 1931; till hell freezes over "never" is from 1919. To ride hell for leather is from 1889, originally with reference to riding on horseback. Hell on wheels is said to be from 1843 in DAS; popularity dates from 1869 in reference to the temporary workers' towns along the U.S. transcontinental railroad and their vices.
Hell's Angels: motorcycle club, first attested 1957. They were called Black Rebels in the 1954 film "The Wild One." Earlier the phrase had been used as the title of a film about World War I air combat (1930).
Hell's Kitchen: disreputable, impoverished New York City neighborhood, the name attested from 1879. The phrase was used from at least 1866 as an intensive form of Hell.
Hell's kitchen (American), a horrible slum. Hell's Kitchen, Murderer's Row, and the Burnt Rag are names of localities which form collectively the worst place in New York. [Albert Barrère and Charles G. Leland, "A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant," 1889]
hell-fired (adj.): a euphemism for damned attested from 1756. See hellfire.
hell-raiser (n.): 1914 (to raise hell is from 1896), from hell + agent noun from raise (v.).
hellacious (adj.): 1930s, college slang, from hell + fanciful ending (cf. bodacious).
hellbender (n.): large salamander of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 1812, supposedly so called for its ugliness.
hellbent (adj.): also hell-bent, 1835, U.S., originally slang, from hell + bent (1).
hellcat (n.): also hell-cat, "volatile woman," c.1600, from hell + cat.
hellebore (n.): late 14c., from Old French ellebore, from Latin elleborus, from Greek helleboros, perhaps meaning "plant eaten by fawns," from Greek ellos/hellos "fawn" + bora "food of beasts," from bibroskein "to eat," from PIE root *gwere- "to swallow." Among the ancients, the name given to various plants of both poisonous and medicinal qualities, reputed to cure madness.
Hellenic (adj.): "pertaining to Greece," 1640s, from Greek Hellenikos, from Hellen "a Greek," of unknown origin. Earliest surviving use is by Homer in reference to a Thessalian tribe.
Hellenism (n.): c.1600, "idiom or expression peculiar to Greek;" see Hellenic + -ism. In sense "culture and ideals of ancient Greece," 1865.
Hellenistic (adj.): 1706, "of or pertaining to Greece and its culture," from Hellen (see Hellenic) + -istic. Since late 19c., specifically of Greek culture in the few centuries after Alexander.
heller (n.): former small coin of Austria and Germany, 1570s, from German Heller, from Middle High German haller, short for haller pfennic "penny coined in Hall" in Swabia (cf. dollar).