Hay Day
This week’s challenge image and today’s blog post title is a take-off of the word heyday.
The title Hay Day consists of two words with the first word spelled with an A. Heyday is all one word and is spelled with an E as the second letter.
The image and post titles (Hay Day) describe a day when hay was gathered and baled in a field next to the apartment complex where we currently reside.
Heyday is a word meaning a period of success, power or popularity or a time of triumph, joy or high spirits.
It is also an old word that I don’t hear very often anymore although some research online indicates that its usage has actually increased this century.
Most scholars date the earliest known usage of the word in the late 1500s. It is also believed that originally the word stood for a state or feeling of excitement, passion or wonder, whereas later the word stood for the height of that feeling of excitement or the apex of a period of elation or triumph.
An example of the earlier use is found in Shakespeare’s work when Hamlet confronts his mother with a picture of his late father. Hamlet says:
You cannot call it love, for at your age
The heyday in the blood is tame, it’s humble…
It seems that Hamlet was referring to libido with the word heyday.
Fast forward two centuries later when the word meant the period of someone or something’s greatest popularity, strength or success. Examples of this usage are found in Tobias Smollett’s 1751 novel The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (“….in the heyday of his fortune.”).
Before the 16th Century an exclamation of cheer or surprise was Heyda or Heida and it is believed that heyday came from that expression.
I think it very interesting that (at least) in the south Hey! is a greeting much like Hello or Hi although German, for example, does have heida for Hey there!
When was the last time you heard anyone use the word heyday?
When was the last time that you personally used the word heyday?
Obviously I used it last in writing this blog post!
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