Hightail

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Dr. Goodword
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Hightail

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Oct 31, 2022 4:59 pm

• hightail •


Pronunciation: hai-tayl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive or transitive with the pronoun it.

Meaning: (US Slang) To rush, run fast, hurry as fast as possible.

Notes: Today's is a word of strictly American origin. I first heard it in B-grade western movies, but today it may be heard wherever slang is spoken. We no longer separate this compound's constituents with a hyphen. It is a lexical orphan.

In Play: Today's Good Word is more often used as a transitive verb with the fixed object it: "When the underage drinking party saw a flashlight coming, they hightailed it out of the cornfield." It usually implies fleeing from something, even when used intransitively: "When the dancing started, Montgomery hightailed out of there and went back home."

Word History: Today's Good Word is a compound, made up of high + tail and refers to those animals which, when fleeing, raise their tails. High has many cousins among the Germanic languages, like German hoch (and Hügel "hill"), Dutch hoog, Danish høj, Swedish hög, and Norwegian høy. All these come from PIE keuk-/kouk- "high, tall", source also of Russian kucha "pile, haystack" and Lithuanian kaukaras "knoll, hillock".

Tail is a reduction of Old English tægl, cousin to regional German Zagel "tail". It is hard to trace outside Germanic languages. It seems to come from PIE doklos-/deklos- "long and thin", a suffixed form of dek'/dok' "to tear, rip", evidence of which is found only in ancient languages, like Sanskrit "dasah "wick", Old Irish dual "lock of hair", and Old Norse (Viking) tagl "hair of a horse's tail". (Now an e-bow to Susan Maynard for spotting the interest in today's rather slangy Good Word and sharing it with us.)
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MTC
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Re: Hightail

Postby MTC » Mon Oct 31, 2022 6:04 pm

About the natural origins of “hightail,” I found the following from an 8-22-06 article by Kathy Kish in the 10-31-22 edition of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph:

“If a deer sees or smell a predator, it raises its tail straight up in the air. This behavior is called “flagging.” A deer may then run away, long tail flagging, carrying other bucks or does with it.”

Makes sense, doesn’t it—a kind of animal semaphore.

Astrogator
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Re: Hightail

Postby Astrogator » Tue Nov 01, 2022 11:01 am

... which is found only in ancient languages, like Sanskrit "dasah "wick", Old Irish dual "lock of hair", and Old Norse (Viking) tagl "hair of a horse's tail".

The Old Norse word has survived to current Swedish as 'tagel', with the exact same meaning.

David Myer
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Re: Hightail

Postby David Myer » Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:54 am

I like the Good Doctor's e-bow to Susan. I wonder if the connection between a violin bow and a horse's tail is the cause of this delightful pun? Perhaps mere coincidence, but I like to think not.


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