hex

1. An evil spell; a curse.
2. One that brings bad luck.

1. To put a hex on.
2. To bring or wish bad luck to: "Chilly evening weather and a chain of minor snafus seemed to hex the $5,000-a-seat gala on Governors Island" (Newsweek).

[Pennsylvania Dutch, from German hexen, to hex, from Hexe, witch, from Middle High German hecse, from Old High German hagzissa.]

WORD HISTORY   The word hex is a good example of the sort of borrowing from other languages that occurred in the English-speaking former colonies of Great Britain. German and Swiss immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania in the late 17th and 18th centuries spoke a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch. In this dialect hexe was the equivalent of the German verb hexen, "to practice sorcery." The English verb hex, first recorded in the sense "to practice witchcraft" in an 1830 work called Annals of Philadelphia, is borrowed from Pennsylvania Dutch, as is the noun.

noun

Something or someone believed to bring bad luck: curse, hoodoo. Informal jinx. See luck/misfortune/chance.

verb

To bring bad luck or evil to: curse, hoodoo. Informal jinx. See luck/misfortune/chance.

1. Short for hexadecimal, base 16.

2. A 6-pack of anything (compare quad, sense 2). Neither usage has anything to do with magic or black art, though the pun is appreciated and occasionally used by hackers. True story: As a joke, some hackers once offered some surplus ICs for sale to be worn as protective amulets against hostile magic. The chips were, of course, hex inverters.

On drawings, abbr. for “hexagon” or “hexagonal.”

General term for witchcraft spells among the Pennsylvania Dutch settlers of America, especially those of southeastern Pennsylvania. Beliefs in magic were brought to the area in the later seventeenth century and given focus in the Rosicrucian group that settled on Wissahikon Creek in Germantown. The group, generally referred to as the Woman in the Wilderness, dissolved in the early eighteenth century, but its members became practitioners of magic, astrology, and healing in the area and were the forerunners of the later hex meisters.

The standard textbook of hex spells and folk remedies used by hex meisters, The Long Lost Friend or Pow-Wows, was published by John George Hohman of Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1820. The book includes instruction for a variety of magic formulas to accomplish practical tasks, as indicated by some of the topics covered: "Against Mishaps and Dangers in the House," "Treating a Sick Cow," "To Stop Bleeding at Any Time," and "To Charm Enemies, Robbers, and Murderers." Many Pennsylvania barns are still decorated with "hex signs," known as hexafoos, originally placed to keep away evil spirits, but today largely a decorative addition.

Sources:

Hark, Ann. Hex Marks the Spot in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1938.

Hohman, John George. The Long Lost Friend or Pow-Wows. N.p., 1820.

Lewis, Arthur H. Hex. New York: Pocket Books, 1972.

Sachse, Julius F. The German Pietists of Provencial Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, 1895. Reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1970.

Look up hex in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A hex is a magical spell, usually with malevolent purposes such as a curse. The term is derived from the German word Hexe for a witch.

Hexa– is a prefix from the Greek word for 'six', as in hexagon, a polygon with six corners.

Hex may also refer to:

Contents 1 Entertainment 1.1 Television & Movies 1.2 Music 1.3 Prose and comics 2 Other

Entertainment

Television & Movies

• Hex (TV series)
• Hex (Doctor Who), a character in the Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the television series Doctor Who
• Hex, a Ben 10 villain
• Hex (1973 movie), a 1973 film starring Keith Carradine, Gary Busey, Dan Haggerty, and Hillarie Thompson

Music

• Hex (Or Printing in the Infernal Method), an album by the band Earth
• Hex (album), an album by the band Bark Psychosis
• Hex (VJ group), a British-based multimedia group active in the 1990s, which later became Hexstatic
• Hex, a 2003 album by the Los Angeles-based rock band Bigelf

Prose and comics

• Hex (The Puzzler), the collective pseudonym of the authors of "The Puzzler"
• Hex (Discworld), a computer in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels
• Hex (book), a dystopian novel by Rhiannon Lassiter
• Jonah Hex, a DC Comics character
• Hex (Dominic Destine), a character in the Marvel Comics series ClanDestine

Other

• Part of a hex map
• Hex (board game)
• Hex, a DNA binding protein (more properly known as PRH) that controls gene expression and cell proliferation
• Hexadecimal, or hex, a base-16 number system often used in computer nomenclature
• Intel HEX, a computer file format
• Hex River, South Africa
• Pow-wow (folk magic), the Pennsylvania German magical system of "hex work"
• Uranium hexafluoride, part of the nuclear fuel refinement process
• Hexcentric, an item of climbing protection equipment
• Hex - the Legend of the Towers, an indoor amusement ride at Alton Towers, England
• Hex key, a tool used to drive fasteners; also known as a hex wrench, Allen wrench, hex-head or zeta key
• Hex sign, a barn decoration originating in Pennsylvania Dutch Country of the Northeastern United States
• Heat exchanger, a device for heat transfer

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Dansk (Danish)
1.
v. tr. - forhekse
n. - hekseri, heks

2.
adj. - uheldig
n. - ulykkesfugl

Nederlands (Dutch)
heks(enmeester), beheksing, vloek, (be) heksen, ongeluk brengen

Français (French)
1.
v. tr. - jeter un sort
n. - sort, charme, sortilège

2.
adj. - hexagonal, relatif au matériel informatique
n. - hexadécimal

Deutsch (German)
1.
v. - verhexen
n. - Hexe, Zauber

2.
adj. - (Abk) sechseckig
n. - Sechseck, Hezagon

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (καθομ.) γρουσουζιά
v. - (ΗΠΑ, καθομ.) επιδίδομαι σε μαγείες, γρουσουζεύω, ματιάζω

Italiano (Italian)
stregone, strega, abbreviazione di esagono/esagonale, fare una fattura

Português (Portuguese)
n. - feitiço (m)
v. - enfeitiçar

Русский (Russian)
ведьма, злые чары, предмет, приносящий несчастье, привораживать, напустить злые чары, шестиугольный

Español (Spanish)
1.
v. tr. - embrujar
n. - maleficio

2.
adj. - hexagonal
n. - hexágono

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - förhäxning, häxa, trassel, otur
v. - förhäxa, förtrolla

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 魔女, 十六进位, 不吉祥的东西, 施魔法于, 使倒霉, 迷惑

2. 十六进制的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 魔女, 十六進位, 不吉祥的東西
v. tr. - 施魔法於, 使倒楣, 迷惑

2.
adj. - 十六進位的

한국어 (Korean)
1.
v. tr. - 마법에 걸다, 홀리게 하다
n. - 마법사, 주술, 마녀

2.
adj. - 6각형의, 6방정계의
n. - 6각형

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - まじない, 魔女
v. - 魔法をかける

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تعويذة اورقيه, ساحرة أو عرافه (فعل) يعلق تعويذة على, يمارس, السحر أو العرافه, ينحس‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כישוף, קללה, מכשפה‬
v. tr. - ‮הטיל קללה על, עסק בכשפים‬
adj. - ‮הקסדצימלי‬

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