hawt

English

Adjective

hawt

1. Pronunciation spelling or leetspeak of hot.
   • 1896, George Wharton Edwards, Break O’ Day, Ayer Publishing (1969), →ISBN, page 46,

     “ Oh, ’t is, eh? Well, I waant to know — kind o’ hawt in here, ain’t it? Phew!” Again the orange silk handkerchief waved clouds of suffocating musk.

   • 2005, Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser, The Rise and Fall of a 10th-Grade Social Climber, Graphia Books, →ISBN, pages 86–87,

     “Mistah,” I drawled, switching on the Texan twang I perfected not in Houston but as a child in New York watching Dallas reruns with my dad. “Ah’m tahrubly sawhruh, but won’t ya tell us what on er-yuhth we’re a-doin’ wrong?” ¶ “We were just having a nice cool refray-yush-munt, Officer—isn’t it so hawt?”

   • 2006, Robert Eversz, Zero to the Bone: A Nina Zero Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 24,

     A few of the comments were marginally pervy, but most were touchingly supportive messages. Ur soooo Hawt!!! One comment read. I can’t believe ur not gonna be a ***.

2. High; in later use, eye dialect spelling of haut or haute.
   • c1560, "Proude Wyues Pater noster", in William Carew Hazlitt (ed.), Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, J.R. Smith (1866), pages 157–158,

     Amen—sayd the other, I pray god it be so, / For ye haue good ynoughe, this I do knowe well, / Of good marchaundise, so mote I the, / As any is here in this countre to sell, / For his degre; but he is a frayde / That he sholde passe his state or loke to hawt, / Than behynde your backes it shulde be sayde, / Yf he fare amyss, that it were all your fawt.

   • a1900, Finley Peter Dunne, "High Finance", in Mr. Dooley’s Philosophy, R. H. Russell (1902), page 160,

     ‘Well,’ says I, ‘Cassidy,’ I says, ‘ye’ve been up again th’ pa-apers call hawt finance,’ I says.   ‘What th’ divvle’s that?’ says he.   ‘Well,’ says I, ‘it ain’t burglary, an’ it ain’t obtaining money be false pretinses, an’ it ain’t manslaughter,’ I says.   ‘It’s what ye might call a judicious seliction fr’m th’ best features iv thim ar-rts,’ I says.

   • 2002, Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 60,

     On it was written, in shaky handwriting: ¶ After thys perfromans, Why Notte Visit / Harga’s Hous of Ribs, / For the Best inne Hawt Cuisyne ¶ “What's hawt cuisyne?” said Victor.

Noun

hawt (plural hawts)

1. Pronunciation spelling of heart.
   • 1880, George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes, quoted in William Dean Howells, Heroines of Fiction, Harper and Brothers (1903), page 242,

     She looked up suddenly and took a quick breath, as if to resume, but her eyes fell before his, and she said, in a tone of half-soliloquy: ‘I ’ave so much troub’ wit dad hawt.’ She lifted one little hand feebly to the cardiac region, and sighed softly, with a dying languor.

   • 1896, Paul Laurence Dunbar, "When Malindy Sings", in Joan R. Sherman, African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773–1927, Courier Dover Publications (1997), →ISBN, pages 64–65,

     / But fu’ real melojous music, / Dat jes’ strikes yo’ hawt and clings, / Jes’ you stan’ an’ listen wif me, / When Malindy sings.

   • 2004, Oliver T. Beard, Bristling with Thorns, Kessinger Publishing, →ISBN, page 163,

     “Deah mistus, cry way down in you hawt, but you’ll git inter mistrouble sho’ if dey sees teahs for de po’ Yanks. Dat yo’ will, honey.”

Pronoun

hawt

1. (obsolete) Anything. (Alternative form of aught)
   • c1500, anonymous, "Robin Hood and the Potter", in Francis James Child, English and Scottish Ballads, Sampson Low (1861), page 29,

     “Her het ys merey to be,” seyde Roben, / “For a man that had hawt to spende; / Be mey horne we schall awet / Yeff Roben Hode be ner hande.”

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:hawt.

Anagrams

• Thaw, Wath, thaw, wath, what