Talk:hoif

RFV discussion: May–July 2014
Any takers? SemperBlotto (talk) 19:05, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * There's a few mentions of a Scots word for house or hall, a surname. and lots of scannos for half, hoff, holy, and even how, but nothing in Google Books. In Google Groups, there's evidently some kind of acronym in sex-related posts, and quite a bit of random character sequences in posts used to render discussions unreadable- but nothing remotely relevant. It's of course possible that usage has been hidden by scannos and other errors, but there's absolutely no evidence I can find by using Google's search. I would guess that it might be in some obscure dictionary of historical slang not accessible on the internet- or it might be someone's attempt to get away with cheating at some word game... Chuck Entz (talk) 23:27, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Keep! It's a real word. It was used in The Ever After Bird by Ann Rinaldi. I remember it! Ready Steady Yeti (talk) 00:44, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Does the usage match "18th century slang for a thief who steals watches."? Given that the novel is set in the 19th century, I'm skeptical it would apply without rewriting the definition. Chuck Entz (talk) 01:05, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
 * It's a Middle English variant of Old English "hof" (hall or dwelling), from Old Norse "hof" (temple), hence the Scots house, though "hove" is the usual spelling (now obsolete). Google can't find the word in The Ever After Bird by Ann Rinaldi.  Is this a problem with my Google search, or with Ready Steady Yeti's memory?    D b f  i  r  s   11:38, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Failed. — Ungoliant (falai) 01:57, 17 July 2014 (UTC)