high [OE] High is one of those small words that plays a part in a large number of expressions. In the calendar of the Christian Church there used to be two sorts of special day: a high day [OE] and a holiday. Holiday [OE] was originally holy day and was a day set apart for religious observance. A high day was a much more important religious festival commemorating a particular sacred person or event. These together give us high days and holidays [L18th]. Being high on drugs is associated with the 1960s, but the expression goes back at least to the 1930s. Alcohol can also be classed as a drug, and you can read of a man being ‘high with wine’ as early as 1627.

The first records of high, wide, and handsome, ‘expansive and impressive’, are from US newspapers in the 1880s. In 1932 a book on Yankee slang comments that it is a common shout at rodeos: ‘Ride him, Cowboy, high, wide, and handsome.’ The expression to be for the high jump might conjure up athletics, but behind it lies a much grimmer scene. It dates from the early 20th century, when it was a slang term used by soldiers to mean ‘to be put on trial before your commanding officer’. The image is actually of a person being executed by hanging, with the jump being the effect of the gallows trapdoor being suddenly opened beneath their feet. See also hog.