Hen vs Hex - What's the difference?
hen | hex |
(dialectal) To throw.
A female bird.
(specifically ) A female chicken, especially one kept for its eggs.
* , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
, chapter=2 (slang) A woman.
(informal) The woman whose impending marriage is being celebrated at a hen night.
To put a hex (a spell, especially an evil spell) on.
An evil spell or curse.
A witch.
(rare) A spell (now rare but still found in compounds such as hex sign and hexcraft).
(computing, informal)
A hexagonal space on a game board.
a hexagon-shaped item of rock climbing equipment intended to be wedged into a crack or other opening in the rock.
English terms with multiple etymologies
As a noun hex is
witch.hen
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) henne, heonne, hinne, from earlier henene, heonenen, henen, from (etyl) heonan, hionan, heonane, . See also (l).Etymology 2
From , or a variant of hench.Verb
(henn)Etymology 3
From (etyl), from (etyl) henn, .Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)citation, passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen , the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}
