Heat

Heat - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HEAT, n. [L. aestus, for haestus, or caestus.]

1. Heat, as a cause of sensation, that is, the matter of heat, is considered to be a subtil fluid, contained in a greater or less degree in all bodies. In modern chimistry, it is called caloric. It expands all bodies in different proportions, and is the cause of fluidity and evaporation. A certain degree of it is also essential to animal and vegetable life. Heat is latent, when so combined with other matter as not to be perceptible. It is sensible, when it is evolved and perceptible.

2. Heat, as a sensation, is the effect produced on the sentient organs of animals, by the passage of caloric, disengaged from surrounding bodies, to the organs. When we touch or approach a hot body, the caloric or heat passes from that body to our organs of feeling, and gives the sensation of heat. On the contrary, when we touch a cold body, the caloric passes from the hand to that body, and causes a sensation of cold.

Note. This theory of heat seems not to be fully settled.

3. Hot air; hot weather; as the heat of the tropical climates.

4. Any accumulation or concentration of the matter of heat or caloric; as the heat of the body; the heat of a furnace; a red heat; a white heat; a welding heat.

5. The state of being once heated or hot.

Give the iron another heat.

6. A violent action unintermitted; a single effort.

Many causes are required for refreshment between the heats.

7. A single effort in running; a course at a race. Hector won at the first heat.

8. Redness of the face; flush.

9. Animal excitement; violent action or agitation of the system. The body is all in a heat.

10. Utmost violence; rage; vehemence; as the heat of battle.

11. Violence; ardor; as the heat of party.

12. Agitation of mind; inflammation or excitement; exasperation; as the heat of passion.

13. Ardor; fervency; animation in thought or discourse.

With all the strength and heat of eloquence.

14. Fermentation.

HEAT, v.t. [L. odi, osus, for hodi, hosus; L aestus, for haestus, heat, tide; Gr. to burn, and the English haste and hoist are probably of the same family.]

1. To make hot; to communicate heat to, or cause to be hot; as, to heat an oven or a furnace; to heat iron.

2. To make feverish; as, to heat the blood.

3. To warm with passion or desire; to excite; to rouse into action.

A noble emulation heats your breast.

4. To agitate the blood and spirits with action; to excite animal action.

HEAT, v.i. To grow warm or hot by fermentation, or extrication of latent heat.

Green hay heats in a mow, and green corn in a bin.

1. To grow warm or hot. The iron or the water heats slowly.

HEAT, for heated, is in popular use and pronounced het; but it is not elegant.

het (chom, horebh, "drought," Job 30:30; Isa 4:6; 25:4; Jer 36:30; sharabh, Isa 49:10, translated in the Revised Version margin "mirage"; zestos, "fervent," Re 3:15, therme, Ac 28:3, kauma, Re 7:16, kauson, Mt 20:12; see MIRAGE):

1. Dreaded in Palestine:

The heat of the summer is greatly dreaded in Palestine, and as a rule the people rest under cover during the middle of the day, when the sun is hottest. There is no rain from May to October, and scarcely a cloud in the sky to cool the air or to screen off the burning vertical rays of the sun. The first word of advice given to visitors to the country is to protect themselves from the sun. Even on the mountains, where the temperature of the air is lower, the sun is perhaps more fierce, owing to the lesser density of the atmosphere.

2. Causes Disease:

This continuous summer heat often causes sunstroke, and the glare causes diseases of the eye which affect a large percentage of the people of Palestine and Egypt.

3. Relief Sought:

It is to be expected that in these times of heat and drought the ideal pleasure has come to be to sit in the shade by some cool flowing fountain. In the mountains the village which has the coolest spring of water is the most desired. These considerations give renewed meaning to the passages: "as cold waters to a thirsty soul" (Pr 25:25); "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters" (Ps 23:2). What a blessing to be "under the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps 91:1), where "the sun shall not strike upon them, nor any heat" (Re 7:16)!

4. Midday Heat:

The middle of the day is often referred to as the "heat of the day" (1Sa 11:11). It made a great difference to the army whether it could win the battle before the midday heat. Saladin won the great battle at Hattin by taking advantage of this fact. It was a particular time of the day when it was the custom to rest. "They came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, as he took his rest at noon" (2Sa 4:5). Yahweh appeared to Abraham as "he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day" (Ge 18:1). The hardship of working throughout the day is expressed in Mt 20:12, "who have borne the burden of the day and scorching heat." Sometimes just after sunrise the contrast of the cold of night and the heat of the sun is especially noticeable. "The sun ariseth with the scorching wind" (Jas 1:11).

5. Summer Heat:

In summer the wind is usually from the Southwest, but in case it is from the South it is sure to be hot. "When ye see a south wind blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching heat" (Lu 12:55). The heat on a damp, sultry day, when the atmosphere is full of dust haze is especially oppressive, and is referred to in Isa 25:5 as "the heat by the shade of a cloud." The heat of summer melts the snow on the mountains and causes all vegetation to dry up and wither. Ice and snow vanish in the heat thereof (Job 6:17), "Drought and heat consume the snow waters" (Job 24:19). But the "tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots by the river .... shall not fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall be green" (Jer 17:8).

6. Figurative Uses:

The word is used often in connection with anger in the Scriptures: "hot anger" (Ex 11:8); "hot displeasure" (De 9:19); "anger of the Lord was hot against Israel" (Jud 2:14 the King James Version); "thine anger from waxing hot" (Ps 85:3 King James Version, margin); "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot" (Re 3:15).

Alfred H. Joy