hex

(hĕks)

noun

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

transitive verb hexed, hex·ing, hex·es

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).

Related Forms:

• hexˈer noun

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.