entry
higher
/ˈhaɪ.ər/more elevated; farther above
From O.English / Proto-Germanic high (elevated).
Word Ancestry
A tiny guttural sound used to live on the end of this word, and English speakers have been pretending not to notice it ever since. In Old English, the comparative of high appeared as hierra or hera, and the old word still shadows us in height, haughty, and high-handed—the same lofty family, but with different personalities. By the 1800s, people were already talking about higher education, which is why the phrase can sound both ordinary and faintly ceremonial, as if a university were a staircase with extra polished banisters. William Whewell was mulling over that distinction in 1850, and by 1905 Americans had invented higher-up for somebody sitting above you in the office pecking order. It is a wonderfully English word: one syllable for the mountain, one comparative ending for the climb, and a whole civilization of ranking, ambition, and looking down from the top.
The Story
A tiny guttural sound used to live on the end of this word, and English speakers have been pretending not to notice it ever since. In Old English, the comparative of high appeared as hierra or hera, and the old word still shadows us in height, haughty, and high-handed—the same lofty family, but with different personalities. By the 1800s, people were already talking about higher education, which is why the phrase can sound both ordinary and faintly ceremonial, as if a university were a staircase with extra polished banisters. William Whewell was mulling over that distinction in 1850, and by 1905 Americans had invented higher-up for somebody sitting above you in the office pecking order. It is a wonderfully English word: one syllable for the mountain, one comparative ending for the climb, and a whole civilization of ranking, ambition, and looking down from the top.
Kin & Kindred
From 'high'·elevated, lofty, great in height
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary