''Hear, hear'' is an
expression which represents a listener's agreement with the point being made by a speaker or in response to a
toast.
Origins
The phrase ''hear him, hear him!'' was used in
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
from late in the 17th century, and was reduced to ''hear!'' or ''hear, hear!'' by the late 18th century. The verb ''hear'' had earlier been used in the
King James Bible
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...
as a command for others to listen.
Other phrases have been derived from ''hear, hear'', such as ''a hear, hear'' (a cheer), ''to hear-hear'' (to shout the expression), and ''hear-hearer'' (a person who does the same).
Usage
It was originally an
imperative for directing attention to speakers, and has since been used, according to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'', as "the regular form of cheering in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
", with many purposes, depending on the
intonation of its user.
Its use in Parliament is linked to the fact that
applause is normally (though not always) forbidden in the chambers of the House of Commons and
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
. It is also used in other parliaments established in the Westminster tradition, such as Australia and Canada.
See also
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hear, Hear
English phrases
Interjections