Make Your Point: HEGIRA

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pronounce HEGIRA:

heh JYE ruh

connect this word to others:

As we check out the word hegira, see if you can recall a close synonym:

Literally a "going out," an ex___s is the act of many people leaving some place all at once, usually to escape from hardships.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

In 622 CE, the prophet Muhammad and his followers fled from persecution in Mecca and escaped to Medina, where he founded the Islamic religion. This act of fleeing, escaping harm, and migrating to a safer place was the original Hegira.

That word, "Hegira," traces back through Latin to the Arabic word hijrah, meaning "a departure." In English we first used it to describe Muhammad's escape, but over time, we applied it more loosely to other escapes and migrations, and we stopped capitalizing it.

So, today, a hegira is any journey that a group makes to escape something, especially for serious reasons that involve their beliefs.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, often the countable kind: "They made a hegira to the west coast."

Sometimes the uncountable kind: "They made hegira."

Other forms:

We hardly ever use the plural noun, but if you need it, it's "hegiras."

And there are lots of alternate spellings, such as "hejira."

how to use it:

Pick the serious, religious-sounding word "hegira" when you want to label someone's journey or departure as profoundly important to them.

Just as we talk about people making their exit or making their journey, we talk about people making their hegira, or making a hegira, or making the hegira to a certain place.

examples:

"A large minority of the tourists in Scotland, and particularly of those most deeply interested in Scotland's greatest bards, hail from the New World. The conclusion of the war will probably be the signal for an unusual hegira from America to Europe."
— The Continental Monthly, Volume 5, Number 5, November 1863

"[Samuel Fromartz] began baking bread himself, learning by trial and error, endless practice, and the counsel of a few books he came to trust. But he was vexed by his inability to make a satisfactory baguette — tell me about it — until he made his hegira to Paris."
— Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post, 26 September 2014

has this page helped you understand "hegira"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "hegira" without saying "escape" or "migration."

try it out:

Some writers use "hegira" quite narrowly to describe long, serious, religious escapes or journeys. Others use it much more loosely to describe important trips of any kind.

Think about the book you most recently read, or the movie you most recently watched, that involved a trip or a journey. Talk about whether or not you'd call that trip or journey a hegira. And if you did, would you be using the word narrowly or loosely?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "CLICKBAIT THIS!"

Summon your creativity and dismiss your sense of decency as you invent a clickbaity description: one that's urgent, exaggerated, ungrammatical, conspiratorial, utterly false, emotionally abrasive, vaguely revelatory, full of feigned shock, and/or bloated with capital letters, question marks, exclamation points, and/or emojis. Get in there and be shameless.

If you're sufficiently disgusted with your clickbait, share it with a friend and see if they can guess its subject. I'll also share mine with you to see if you can guess it.

Clickbait this today: A cat breed or dog breed of your choice.

Try guessing my breed of cat or dog: ME AND MY FRIEND TRANSPORTED TO A MANSION WHERE WE MENACE BIRD, STALK FISH, SMASH VASE, NEXT HUNT BABY????? (100% WORKS)

Scroll all the way down for the answer to mine.

review this word:

1. A near opposite of MAKING A HEGIRA could be

A. STAYING PUT or SETTLING IN.
B. STAYING TRUE or FORSAKING OTHERS.
C. STAYING FIRM or REFUSING TO NEGOTIATE.

2. In a personal narrative, John Gallishaw describes making a hegira _____.

A. out of beef, biscuits, and rum
B. in order to afford a sturdy gray woolen overcoat
C. away from his station in a disease-infested trench

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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