▪ I. higher, a. (n.1) and adv.
(ˈhaɪə(r))
Forms: α. 1 h{iacu}erra, h{iacu}era, h{iacu}r(r)a, h{yacu}r(r)a; héra; hérra, héarra, 2–5 herre, 5 heer, her, har, 5–6 harre. β. 1 h{iacu}ehra, héahra, 2 heahere, 3 hæhȝere, (Orm.) hehhre, 3–4 heȝer(e, heier, 4 hegher, -ur, heyer(e, 4–6 Sc. hear(e, 5 heiȝer, heȝare, heiar, heyar, 6 Sc. hecher. γ. 4–6 hier(e, hyer, Sc. hyear(e, 5 hiȝere, hiar, 6 hyar, Sc. hiear, 6– higher. δ. dial. 9 hicker.
[OE.: WS. h{iacu}erra, h{iacu}era (Anglian héra, hérra, whence ME. herre, heer, her, etc.), corresp. to OHG. hôhiro, Goth. hauhiza, f. hauhs, OE. héah high a.; subseq. conformed to the positive, as h{iacu}ehra, héahra, whence ME. heȝer, hegher, later higher: see high.]
A. adj.
1. a. The comparative of high a. in its various senses, q.v.
| α c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. Pref. 6 To hierran [v.r. hieran] hade. Ibid. lii. 409 Se mæᵹðhad is hirra ðonne se ᵹesinscipe. c 900 O.E. Chron. an. 897 Eac hieran [MSS. B. & C. hearran] þonne þa oðru. a 1000 Cædmon's Dan. 491 Wearð him hyrra hyᵹe..þonne ᵹemet wære. c 1000 Phœnix 28 in Exeter Bk., Herra..þonne æniᵹ þara beorᵹa. c 1205 Lay. 22758 Þe an hine talde hæh, þe oðer muche herre. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 333 Herre þen ani in þe hous by þe hede & more. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3924 Hoger of hert & of her wille. c 1450 Myrc 1527 The herre that a mon ys in degre. |
| β a 1000 Cædmon's Gen. 274 Hu he him strenglicran stol ᵹeworhte, heahran on heofonum. a 1175 Cott. Hom. 243 We scule bien..imeaded mid heahere mede. c 1200 Vices & Virtues 115 Ðat godes milce bie aure heier and more ðanne his rihte dom. c 1200 Ormin 6297 All an oþerr lif Annd hehhre lif annd bettre. c 1205 Lay. 7740 Mid hæhȝere stefne. a 1300 Cursor M. 7331 Saul..was hegher [v.rr. heyer, heȝer] þan ani man. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Marcus 5 Þai ware of heare degre. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 8 Crist is..heiar wiþ out comparisoun þan ani pope. a 1400–50 Alexander 2097 Neuire þe heȝare of a hawe. 1581 Satir. Poems Reform. xliv. 269 Ane hear place. |
| γ 13.. Cursor M. 15056 (Gött.) Comen of þat hei dauid kin, Of hier [Cott. heier] nane can neuen. 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 608 God of mycht Preserwyt him till hyer hycht. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) viii. 92 Mount Syon..is a lytille hiere than the other syde of the cytee. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 336 On Arthuris Sete, or on ane hyar hill. 1513 More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 758 His left shoulder much higher then his right. 1563–7 Buchanan Reform. St. Andros Wks. (1892) 15 Doctor..in the hyear faculteis. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 52 You must make the spaces betwixt hier. 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 135 Exposed to overflowings from higher ground. 1814 Chalmers Evid. Chr. Revel. vii. 195 Geology gives a higher antiquity to the world. 1876 Tait Rec. Adv. Phys. Sc. i. (ed. 2) 20 The energy of the universe is continually passing from higher to lower forms. |
| δ 1876 Whitby Gloss., Hicker, higher..‘I want t'hicker yan o' them', the top one of the lot. |
† b. Used in sense of highest. Obs.
| 1340 Ayenb. 122 Þri stages of uolke..huer-of þe on is heȝere, þe oþer men, þe þridde loȝest. |
2. spec. Superior to the common or ordinary sort; passing or lying beyond the ordinary limits; as in the higher classes, the higher education of women, higher mathematics. higher criticism: see criticism 2 b. So higher critic, one versed in higher criticism. Higher (School) Certificate, an examination instituted in 1917 and replaced in 1951 by the Advanced level General Certificate of Education, taken by pupils of about 18. Higher Thought = New Thought.
| 1836, etc. [see criticism 2 b]. 1866 E. Davies (title) The higher education of women. 1868 Rep. Sch. Inqu. Comm. I. 115 in Parl. Papers 1867–8 (C. 3966) XXVIII. i, [Endowed] Schools have been regarded as the subjects of special trusts..not as local contributions to the higher education of the country. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VII. 674/1 Every Jesuit college was divided into two parts, the one for higher the other for lower education. 1884 C. Bird Higher Educ. in Germany & England i. 5 Few [sc. people] realise to what an extent we are surpassed by Germany..as regards the liberal provision made for higher education. 1896 Spectator 30 May 767/1 The great feature of the higher education should be a very well-marked revolt of the body against the mind. 1897 Rendel Harris in Contemp. Rev. Sept. 342 He is a ‘higher critic’ occupied with the genesis of all Gospels out of their primitive deposit. 1909 Chesterton Orthodoxy v. 136 Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment the worst is..the Inner Light... Anyone who knows anyone from the Higher Thought Centre knows how it does work. 1909 H. G. Wells Ann Veronica vi. 124 Jim is up to the neck in Mahatmas and Theosophy and Higher Thought and rot. 1918 Univ. Cambridge Local Exam. Synd. Higher School Certificate Exam. List 6 (heading) Exemption from the Previous examination by means of the higher school certificate examination. 1931 (title) Report of the Commission on Christian Higher Education in India. 1933 Discovery Sept. 271/2 He is best known for his researches on the Higher Thought Processes. 1945 Guide Educ. Syst. Gloss. 58 Higher School certificate (higher certificate), certificate awarded on results of the examination taken at about 18 by grammar school pupils. 1949 H. McLennan Cross-country 169 So much for higher education in Canada. 1961 Sunday Times 26 Feb. 12/6 By 1970 there could be 140,000 children applying for the 70,000 places there will then be in higher education. 1963 Barnard & Lauwerys Handbk. Brit. Educ. Terms 106 The Higher School Certificate examination, which came into operation in 1917 and was conducted by certain university boards, was taken by pupils in grammar schools at about the age of 18. It was primarily intended to be a test of a two-years sixth form course of a somewhat specialised nature. 1968 Listener 6 June 723/1, I use the expression ‘higher education’ in the same sense as the Robbins Committee. Broadly, it covers courses for students of 18 and over which reach a standard above A-level in GCE and for which the normal entry qualifications are at least five O-level passes or the equivalent. Degree courses account for a big proportion of the field. |
3. Phrases. † a. to have the higher hand: to have the superiority; to gain the victory or mastery. b. with a higher hand: see high a. 17 b.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3392 Israel Hadde heȝere hond. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 399 If þat he faught and hadde the hyer hond. c 1400 Destr. Troy 7075 That holly the herhond hade at his wille. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) II. 425 It will shortly have the higher hand of all clouds. 1880 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Rebel of Fam. ii, He..carried things with a higher hand than once she would have thought possible. |
4. Comb., forming comparatives to the combinations of high a. (see high a. IV).
| 1618 Bolton Florus (1636) 307 Higher crested. 1876 Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. ii. xiii. 348 note, On the rolls of the higher⁓class public schools. 1955 Internat. Survey Programmes Social Devel. (U.N.) 8 Training abroad on fellowships has made an important though necessarily limited contribution to the supply of higher-level technical and professional workers in some countries. 1958 B. Abel-Smith in N. Mackenzie Conviction 59 The middle classes..participate with the higher income groups in special benefits from their employment. 1960 Amer. Speech XXXV. 230 English open internal juncture..is defined as the boundary point between two higher level phonological units (bounded sequences). 1962 Corson & Lorrain Introd. Electromagn. Fields i. 24 The sum of these four terms (neglecting higher-order differentials because we are interested in the limit S→—O) is equal to the right-hand side of Eq. 1–109. 1964 Crystal & Quirk Prosodic & Paralinguist. Features Eng. iv. 52 One might set up the existence of higher-order patterns as a hypothesis. 1965 C. H. Springer et al. Adv. Methods & Models iii. 76 We might as well finish the job by deriving formulas for these higher-order differences. 1967 Computers & Automation Feb. 30/1 The single most important tool is what has become known as a ‘programming language’, sometimes called a ‘higher level language’ (to distinguish it from the normal machine codes or assembly languages..). 1968 Fox & Mayers Computing Methods for Scientists & Engineers iii. 32 It is..possible to start with a very accurate yo and use double or higher precision arithmetic, but this is lengthy. |
5. quasi-n. a. One higher; a superior, a better.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 198 Inobedience; þet is, þet child þet ne buhð nout his eldre..meiden, hire dame; euerich lowure his herre. 1840 Mill Diss. & Disc. (1875) I. 401 His reliance is upon reverence for a Higher above them. |
† b. Superior position; the better (of). Obs.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 2364 Alexander with his armee..Has happend ȝit ai hedire-to þe herre [v.r. hyer] of his faes. |
B. adv.
1. The comparative of high adv. in its various senses, q.v.
| α c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iii. vi. [viii.] (1890) 174 Heo wolden þone stan..hear and ᵹerisenlicor in þære ilcan stowe ᵹesettan. c 1350 Will. Palerne 529 Min hert is so hauteyn þat herre he wold. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 445 Putte hit on ayein, And more a litel herre vppon hit wrote. ? a 1500 Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.) vii. 425 All heaven might not have gone har. 1589 R. Robinson Gold. Mirr. (Chetham Soc.) 48 How can Dame Fortune mount more harre? |
| β, γ a 1300 Cursor M. 2232 A toure..þat may reche heghur [v.rr. heier, heȝer] þan heuen. 1382 Wyclif Luke xiv. 10 Frend, stiȝe hiȝere. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xvii. (1495) 63 Suche foules fleen hyer in the ayre. 1508 Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 160 With that sprang vp hir spreit be a span hecher. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxxxiii. 262 Speke out hyer that ye may the better be herde. 1570 Satir. Poems Reform. xii. 128 Be Hanniballis, and heis ȝour hartis sum hear. 1715 Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 84, I..mention'd it a little higher. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. II. 93 Sesostris..whose æra extends higher, than the Canon of Eusebius reaches. 1842 C. Whitehead R. Savage (1845) II. ix. 298 He thought higher of human nature than he chose to acknowledge. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 74 Higher up the sky was violet. |
2. Comb., forming comparatives to the combinations of high adv.
| 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. i. iv. 7 A higher aspiring mind. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 63 A Hall..higher pitch'd. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ii. 54 Time higher aim'd, still nearer the great Mark. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxxiii. (1878) 586 She's higher-born than you. 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi li. 502 Explosion followed explosion..reports grew steadily sharper and higher-keyed. 1923 H. Crane Let. 21 July (1965) 142 Being with the largest advertising agency in the world..will get me higher-paid positions in other places after awhile. 1969 Punch 15 Jan. 91/3 Allied Breweries, the International Compressed Air Corporation or other proclaimed seekers of higher-educated manpower. |
▸ Sc. Educ. Chiefly with capital initial. The Higher grade of the Scottish Certificate of Education, an examination taken or qualification gained following an optional one-year course undertaken after the end of compulsory schooling; cf. Standard grade n. at standard n. and adj. Additions. Usu. in pl.
Typically students take four or five Highers, often in order to meet a university entrance requirement.
| 1947Secondary Educ. ((Rep. Advisory Council Educ. in Scotl.)) viii. 52 in Parl. Papers 1946–7 ((Cmnd. 7005)) XI. 173 The Scottish Education Department..has adjusted its Leaving Certificate requirements to changing conditions.., and the minimum presentation is now only two Highers and three Lowers. 1967 H. Calvin Nice Friendly Town ix. 135 He asked me what my qualifications were, and I said the school Highers and the National Certificate. 1983 J. L. Ingard Winter Visitor xi. 95 Perhaps Joe would stay and do another year at school and take his Highers. 1992 Guardian 14 Apr. 23/4 Scots had been quite proud of the higher, arguing that it was a flexible exam system which encouraged both breadth and depth of study. |
▪ II. † higher, n.2 Obs.
In 5 heyere.
[f. high v. + -er1.]
One who raises or exalts.
| 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles ii. 145 Þe hende Egle, þe heyere of hem all. Ibid. iii. 74. |
▪ III. higher, v. rare.
[f. prec. adj.: cf. lower vb.]
1. trans. To make higher, raise (lit. and fig.). The opposite of to lower.
| c 1715 in N. & Q. 7th Ser. (1889) VII. 57/2 The major..desired him to higher all sails. 1831 Blackw. Mag. XXIX. 980 Our high opinion..has not been lowered..It has—pardon the expression—been highered. 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 160 (Hoppe) When I highered the rope in my yard. |
2. intr. To become higher, rise, mount, ascend.
| 1872 Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 20 To sweep In ever-highering eagle-circles up To the great Sun of Glory. |