How is "hue/hew and cry" spelled? in Wordorigins Archive 07 (01/03-03/03) Forum

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How is "hue/hew and cry" spelled?

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Unregistered(d)	How is "hue/hew and cry" spelled?	Lead	[-]
Posts: 0 Feb 18 03 10:10 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Could someone please tell me the correct spelling of the word in question? And then, could you explain it to me? H-U-E makes no sense in the classic definition of color. H-E-W means to cut or hack, doesn't it?
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gregs(d)	Re: How is "hue/hew and cry" spelled?	#1	[-]
Posts: 1830 Feb 18 03 10:22 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"hue" is also an old hunting cry from Old French and Middle English. my dictionary says it only exists in the phrase you mention, but i kind of question that. "hue and cry" was "originally a loud shout or cry by those pursuing a felon; all those who heard were obliged to join in the pursuit." (WNW)
DaveWilton	Re: How is "hue/hew and cry" spelled?	#2	[-]
Posts: 7492 Feb 18 03 10:24 AM Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It once existed in wider use to mean a call or outcry. But today it is obsolete except in the phrase "hue and cry." (Which is redundant, but many such catchphrases are.) A different word than hue = color.
ht2003	Fossil words	#3	[-]
Posts: 960 Feb 18 03 2:02 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	But today it is obsolete except in the phrase "hue and cry." (Which is redundant, but many such catchphrases are.) We have discussed hue and cry and beck and call These are examples of Fossil words existing only in a phrase or expression (list below from Bill Bryson's 'Mother Tongue') short shrift* ; hem and haw ; raring to go; newfangled ; spick and span ; kith and kin.
gregs(d)	Re: Fossil words	#4	[-]
Posts: 1830 Feb 18 03 2:19 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	i think if i read that "a great hue arose", i wouldn't have any problem with it.
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Jetty Jim	Re: Fossil words	#5	[-]
Posts: 720 Feb 18 03 5:04 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think Bill Bryson is a bit premature in declaring raring fossilized. I've heard the term used to describe a horse that is rearing on its hind legs (same sense, but not in the specific phrase "raring to go"). It still sounds a bit archaic (although MWO dates it back to only 1909) but Googling comes up with a lot of current usage. Most of these are sports references - "raring to hit the field"; "raring to flex muscle";"raring for a rally". It also turned up a number of English-language Indian sites where raring is used for rearing, as in husbandry (which MWO says is the "English dialect." origin of raring), including job listings for raring animals and a New Delhi Municipal Council official "License for Animal Raring".
samclem	hue and cry	#6	[-]
Posts: 425 Feb 19 03 5:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Michael Quinion, over at http://www.worldwidewords.org/ discusses this in his column which will appear this next week. I am on his mailing list to get an advance copy.
ht2003	Re: hue and cry	#7	[-]
Posts: 960 Feb 24 03 4:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Here is the gen which samclem refers to www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hue1.htm A leetle extract: This mysterious word hue is from the first part of the Anglo-Norman French legal phrase hu e cri. This came from the Old French hu for an outcry, in turn from huer, to shout. It seems that hue could mean any cry, or even the sound of a horn or trumpetthe phrase hu e cri had a Latin equivalent, hutesium et clamor, with horn and with voice. So everything this week is explained by CAMUS, CANOE or CORNU ~ the army, the sea or horns (tin- -pipe etc.)
ElizaD	Re: hue and cry	#8	[-]
Posts: 5686 Feb 24 03 4:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Which one's Hughie?
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How is "hue/hew and cry" spelled?

How is "hue/hew and cry" spelled?