heer

English

Etymology 1

Uncertain.

Noun

heer (plural heers)

A yarn measure of six hundred yards, or 1/24 of a spindle.

Etymology 2

From Dutch heer.

Noun

heer (plural heers)

A Dutch lord.
- 1725, Memorials of Affairs of State in the Reigns of Q. Elizabeth and K. James I. […], volume III, London: […] W. B. for T. Ward, […], page 387:
  […] ſo as I was for four Days and Nights together in State of one of your Dutch Heers after a Feaſt, looking ſtill when I ſhould vomere Animam; […]
- 1824 September, “Letters of Timothy Tickler, Esq. to Eminent Literary Characters. No. XVIII. To Christopher North, Esq. On the last Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, and on Washington Irving’s Tales of a Traveller.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XVI, number XCII, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], pages 295–296:
  Mr Irving, after writing, perhaps after printing one volume, and three-fourths of another, seems to have been suddenly struck with a conviction of the worthlessness of the materials that had thus been passing through his hands, and in a happy day, and a happy hour, he determined to fill up the remaining fifty or sixty pages, not with milk-and-water stuff about ghosts and banditti, but with some of his own old genuine stuff—the quaintnesses of the ancient Dutch heers and frows of the delicious land of the Manhattoes.
- 1913, F[rancis] H[enry] Blackburne Daniell, editor, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series. March 1st, 1678, to December 31st, 1678, with Addenda, 1674 to 1679. Preserved in the Public Record Office., London: […] The Hereford Times Limited, […], page 272:
  These two or three days past we are filled with reports from Amsterdam and other places in the Dutch Netherlands that the French King much falls off from his agreement with the Dutch, as they say, and that the Prince of Orange, who so lately was in great danger, is now highly complimented by all the Dutch heers.
- 1972, Maurice Lee, Jr., editor, Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, 1603–1624: Jacobean Letters, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 31:
  The duke of Deux-Ponts was the only man of the German princes whom we saw there, and he came accompanied with 6 or 7 Dutch heers, his wife, and six or seven lusty Dutch wenches; […]
- 1976, Christopher Matthew, A Different World: Stories of Great Hotels, Paddington Press Ltd., →ISBN, page 17:
  However, when I tell you that the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh were there, and the King of Norway, and the Shah of Persia and Queen Farah Diba, and the Prince Michael of Greece, and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, and Prince Bertil of Sweden, plus nearly fifty assorted princes and princesses, dukes, barons, graafs and gravins, meurows and heers, you will begin to see just how high a high point it was in the Amstel’s history.

Related terms

mynheer

Anagrams

HREE, Rehe, Rhee, here

Afrikaans

Etymology 1

From Dutch heer, from Middle Dutch hêre, from Old Dutch hērro, hēro, from Old High German hēriro, hērro, the comparative form of hēr (“noble, venerable”).

Noun

heer (plural here, diminutive heertjie)

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Dutch heer, from Middle Dutch here, from Old Dutch heri, from Proto-West Germanic *hari, from Proto-Germanic *harjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kóryos.

Noun

heer (plural here, diminutive heertjie)

host, army

Derived terms

Dutch

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɦeːr/
Audio: (file)
Hyphenation: heer
Rhymes: -eːr
Homophone: Heer

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch hêre, from Old Dutch hērro, hēro, from Old High German hēriro, hērro, the comparative form of hēr (“noble, venerable”) (German hehr), by analogy with Latin senior (“elder”). The Old High German word originally meant "grey, grey-haired", and descends from Proto-Germanic *hairaz (“grey”), making it cognate with English hoar, Old Norse hárr.

Noun

heer m (plural heren, diminutive heertje n)

a lord; master
De heer van dit kasteel is een mecenas van de kunsten. ― The lord of this castle is a patron of the arts.
a gentleman
De oude heer droeg een bruine hoed. ― The old gentleman wore a brown hat.
a cleric, notably a Catholic priest

Usage notes

The alternative forms here and heere are obsolete, but note that capitalized Here has taken on a life of its own in Christian contexts, being used as a respectful way of referring to the Abrahamic God.

Alternative forms

(obsolete) here, heere

Derived terms

Descendants

Afrikaans: heer
Negerhollands: heer, here
→ Papiamentu: her (dated)

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch here, from Old Dutch heri, from Proto-West Germanic *hari, from Proto-Germanic *harjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kóryos.

Noun

heer n (plural heren, diminutive heertje n)

(archaic) an army
Synonym: leger

Alternative forms

heir

Derived terms

Related terms

Anagrams

here

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English hǣr.

Noun

heer (plural heers)

(anatomy) A hair.

Descendants

English: hair

North Frisian

Verb

heer

third-person singular present of haa