英语词汇hem and haw的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

hem and haw. As an expression for hesitancy, to hem and haw isn’t recorded until 1786. But it is found centuries earlier in similar expressions such as to hem and hawk, hem and ha, and hum and ha, which Shakespeare used. These are all sounds made in clearing the throat when we are about to speak. When a speaker constantly makes them without speaking he is usually hesitating out of uncertainty, which suggested the phrase. Said the first writer to record the idea in 1469: “He wold have gotyn it aweye by humys and by hays but I would not so be answered.”

词汇	hem and haw
词源	hem and haw. As an expression for hesitancy, to hem and haw isn’t recorded until 1786. But it is found centuries earlier in similar expressions such as to hem and hawk, hem and ha, and hum and ha, which Shakespeare used. These are all sounds made in clearing the throat when we are about to speak. When a speaker constantly makes them without speaking he is usually hesitating out of uncertainty, which suggested the phrase. Said the first writer to record the idea in 1469: “He wold have gotyn it aweye by humys and by hays but I would not so be answered.”
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