hate - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
hate, haet, hait n (usually in negative contexts) A whit, the smallest thing or quantity. [oed hate, haet n2 ‘orig. The words hae’t in the phrase Deil hae’t … “Devil have it!” This deprecatory expression became a strong negative, and thus equivalent to “Devil a bit”, i.e. not a bit, not a whit. Hence haet, with an ordinary negative, as not a haet, came sometimes to be understood as equivalent to “whit, atom”, or “anything, the smallest thing that can be conceived” (Jamieson)’; snd haet n 1 ‘“ha(v)e it”, used in imprecative sentences with negative force = not a grain or particle, “damn all”, in such phrases as deil, fi(e)nt, foundit, fule, plague, sorra, sorry, sorrow, etc. haet, also used as an exclamation of impatience, annoyance or disgust … originally an exclamatory phrase deil hae’t = devil have it! from imperative of hae = to have, used as a strong negative. It became synonymous with devil a bit, etc. not a whit, and the indefinite article was introduced into the phrase’; cud (the) deil haet, deil hae it (at have), ‘lit. the devil have it = devil a bit, not a bit’; dare hate n ‘a whit, a jot, the smallest thing’ chiefly Appalachians, Ohio Valley]
Ulst.:
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 48 hait = anything; ‘deil a hait’ = anything at all.
1891 Simmons Armagh Words and Phrases 11 hate = half-penny worth, a small quantity: ‘not worth a hate’.
1902 McIlroy Druid’s Island 111 A didna daur tak’ them aff, an’ no’ a haet could a dae wi’ them on.
1904 Marshall Dial of Ulster 127 hate = the smallest portion, nothing; as, ‘not a hate’.
1939 Paterson Country Cracks 41 That has devil a hate to do with the wee people, exceptin’ that it wus after they come that they first wanted till leave.
1953 Traynor Donegal Glossary 131 haet = a whit, the smallest thing that can be conceived.
1981 Pepper Ulster-English Dict 38 I don’t know a hate about it.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 110 haet = jot, whit, scrap: ‘A haenae a haet in the hoose’; ‘dae a haet wae’; ‘mak a haet o’ = do or make anything of (by way of improvement or reform); ‘deil the haet’; ‘feen a haet’; ‘shame a haet’ = not a jot, nothing at all.
U.S.:
1826 Royall Grison Republic 90 Their favorite word of all, is hate, by which they mean, the word thing; for instance, nothing ‘not a hate—not waun hate will ye’s do’. What did you buy at the stores, ledies? ‘Not a hate—well you hav’nt a hate here to eat’.
1859 Bartlett Americanisms 191 hate = a bit, as ‘I don’t care a hate’; ‘I didn’t eat a hate’ … It is the Scotch haet, as in the phrase ‘fient a hate’, i.e. the devil a bit.
1930 Shoemaker 1300 Penn Words 28 hait = a matter of no consequence.
1971 Dwyer Dict for Yankees 27 Hate, haet, hait = a bit, small amount.
1975 Gainer Speech Mtneer 11 ‘I don’t give a hate’ means ‘I don’t care’. ‘I don’t give a hate what you do’.
