heft

[GG]

"These days, I normally heft myself home to my family by six."

Is this "heft" mostly BrE?

Thanks.

[Harrison Hill]

You wouldn't hear it in London, but if you did hear it you'd know it
meant "heave".

[CDB]

Isn't a "hefted" sheep one that stays close to home? I believe there
may be an expert in the matter nearby.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

I'm not an expert but I do subscribe to a UK agricultural newsgroup.

A hefted sheep is one that stays on a piece of "home territory". This
became an issue during the foot and mooth disease outbreak among farm
animals in the UK in 2001. Sheep in the English Lake District are
hefted. They spend much of the year on the fells (hills) without being
physically kept in place. They are free to travel as far as they like -
tens of miles if they get the urge. However, each flock tends to have
its own general territory. The assumption was that hefting is partly a
matter of custom handed down by example from sheep to lamb over many
generations. The concern was that following a massive cull of sheep the
replacements would not have the same habit or custom.

The OED gives the noun:

heft, n.3
Etymology: Variant of haft n.2 2.
local.

(The sheep in) a settled or accustomed pasture-ground.

1960 K. Williamson & J. M. Boyd St. Kilda Summer 84 The Hirta
flock is divided into hefts, more or less discrete groups each
restricted to its own particular range.
1961 New Scientist 9 Nov. 341/2 The natural unit in hill sheep
farming is the heft—the group of sheep that habitually graze
within the confines of a particular area of hill ground.

From a letter to the Prime Minister from a man in the Lake District:
http://www.conservationwatcher.com/heftedflocks.html

12 Apr '01

Dear Sir.

Heafed or Hefted Flocks

The landscape of the British uplands that we like to regard as our
heritage, that tourists love to visit, written about by Wordsworth
and Sir Walter Scott, was shaped by men and their sheep. The Heafed
or Hefted flocks of the Welsh Mountains, the Lake District, and the
Pennines from High Peak to the Borders, the Cheviots, Galloway Hills
and the Scottish Highlands.

The Heaf or Heft is the territory occupied by a flock on open hill.
The individual sheep live and move within these boundaries according
to season and weather. Each lamb inherits its mother's patch and out
on the hill it is possible to pick out family groups made up of
different generations.

<much more detail about the life of sheep on the fells>

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[James Hogg]

That must be different from the "hefted" found in Scotland and Ulster:
"It's quare and hateful to be hefted for a pish and you has nowhere to
go." The verb is in the OED, defined as "To restrain, retain (milk or
urine)." There's a quotation from Jamieson, "One is said to be heftit,
when, in consequence of long retention, the bladder is painfully distended."

--
James

[GG]

Harrison Hill wrote:
> On Oct 10, 10:00 am, GG <not_here@no_where.com> wrote:
>> "These days, I normally heft myself home to my family by six."
>>
>> Is this "heft" mostly BrE?
>

> You wouldn't hear it in London, but if you did hear it you'd know it
> meant "heave".

Thank you all.

[Irwell]

In weaving there is weft and warp,
so in heaving do we have heft and harp?

[CDB]

On 10/10/2012 12:04 PM, James Hogg wrote:
> CDB wrote:

>> Harrison Hill wrote:
>>> GG <not_here@no_where.com> wrote:

>>>> "These days, I normally heft myself home to my family by six."

>>>> Is this "heft" mostly BrE?

>>>> Thanks.

>>> You wouldn't hear it in London, but if you did hear it you'd know it
>>> meant "heave".

>> Isn't a "hefted" sheep one that stays close to home? I believe there
>> may be an expert in the matter nearby.

> That must be different from the "hefted" found in Scotland and Ulster:
> "It's quare and hateful to be hefted for a pish and you has nowhere to
> go." The verb is in the OED, defined as "To restrain, retain (milk or
> urine)." There's a quotation from Jamieson, "One is said to be heftit,
> when, in consequence of long retention, the bladder is painfully
> distended."

This is from Archie Valparaiso, so I'm probably wrong about the
proximity of the expert:

[Stolen] Dartmoor sheep could not be easily replaced as they
are "hefted" or "leared", meaning that, through breeding and
nurture, they possess a characteristic "homing instinct" to
their patch, making a certain part of the moor their home -- a
feature that allows farmers to keep them unfenced and to
easily locate them.

www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,,2016146,00.html

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/browse_thread/thread/123b1652fb174409/b5c666283dd79e98?lnk=gst&q=hefted#b5c666283dd79e98

http://b.tinyurl.com/6a874eg

The URL for the article didn't work for me.

[Eric Walker]

On Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:00:26 -0400, GG wrote:

> "These days, I normally heft myself home to my family by six."
>
> Is this "heft" mostly BrE?

As an American, I have never heard it.

The base sense of "heft" as a verb is along the lines of to lift or carry
(something heavy), or to heave something heavy (about). It seems a minor
extension of that sense to refer to "hefting oneself" as meaning to
tediously move one's self from one place to another. It might even sound
a clever use the very first time one hears it, though assuredly never
beyond that first time.


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

[Mike L]

On Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:04:59 +0200, James Hogg <Jas....@gOUTmail.com>
wrote:

I understand that Enoch Powell's technique was to make speeches with a
full bladder to help build tension. On reflection, that would account
for the staring eyes.

--
Mike.