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huge

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English huge, from Old French ahuge (“high, lofty, great, large, huge”), of unknown origin.

One theory derives it from an underlying Old French a hoge (“at height”), from a (“at, to”) + hoge (“a hill, height”), the latter from Frankish *haug or cognate Old Norse haugr (“hill”); both from Proto-Germanic *haugaz (“hill, mound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kowkós (“hill, mound”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *kewk-, whence also English high.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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huge (comparative huger or more huge, superlative hugest or most huge)

  1. Very large.
    Synonyms: great; see also Thesaurus:large
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, […] the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts, […] the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!”
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, […].
    • 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
  2. (informal) Very strong, powerful, or dedicated.
    Synonym: great
    Both of my parents are huge supporters of animal rights.
  3. (informal) Very interesting, significant, or popular.
    Synonym: great
    The band's next album is going to be huge.
    In our league our coach is huge!

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Old French ahuge, a form of ahoge, of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈhiu̯d͡ʒ(ə)/, /ˈhud͡ʒ(ə)/

Adjective

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huge

  1. huge, large, enormous
  2. great, severe, excessive, prominent
  3. numerous, plentiful

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • English: huge
  • Scots: huge, hudge

References

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Adverb

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huge

  1. hugely, greatly

References

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Middle French

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Noun

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huge f (plural huges)

  1. market stall

Norwegian Bokmål

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Inherited from Old Norse huga (“to think, reflect, consider”), from Proto-Germanic *hugōną (“to have in mind, think, consider”), synchronically analysable as *hugiz (“mind, thought”) + *-ōną.

Compare Norwegian Nynorsk huge, huga, Danish hue, Icelandic huga, Faroese huga, and Dutch heugen.

Verb

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huge (imperative hug, present tense huger, passive huges, simple past huga or huget, supine huga or huget, past participle huga or huget, present participle hugende)

  1. to desire, long for, feel like; to have a wish or inclination for something
    huge etter noe
    to want something; to long for something
  2. to appeal to, to please; to be liked or found agreeable by someone
    • 1874, Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt, page 149:
      dette her, det huger mig meget bedre, end livet histover blandt Charlestowns rhedre
      this here appeals to me much more than life over there among Charleston's shipowners
    • 1919, Nils Collett Vogt, Digte i utvalg, page 142:
      det huger os at findes, hvor stormænd holder stevne
      it pleases us to be where great men hold council
    Synonyms: behage, tiltale

Etymology 2

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Same as hue (“to shout, yell”).

Verb

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huge (imperative hug, present tense huger, simple past and past participle huget, present participle hugende, verbal noun huging)

  1. (dialectal) to shout, yell, or bellow loudly and raucously
    • 1926, Mikkjel Fønhus, Reinsbukken på Jotunfjell, page 124:
      [Knut] stod der og huget
      [Knut] stood there shouting
    • 2013 December 16, Telen, page 7:
      huge og bråke
      to shout and make noise
    • 2017 June 17, Valdres, page 2:
      vi huga og skreik
      we shouted and screamed
    Synonyms: gaule, huie, rope

References

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