Heft

• IPA^(key): /hɛft/
• (Germany)

  (file)

• (Austria)

  (file)

  IPA^(key): /das‿ˈhɛft/

18th-century backformation from heften (“to fasten”), from *haftijaną (“to bind, secure”).

• H. (abbreviation, chiefly in context)

Heft n (genitive Heftes or Hefts, plural Hefte, diminutive Heftchen n)

1. notebook, writing booklet, cahier (book in which notes or memoranda are written)
2. notepad, writing pad (pad of paper on which one jots down notes)
3. exercise book (booklet for students, containing problems and exercises, or blank pages for writing answers)
4. number, issue (single edition of a periodical publication)
5. magazine (non-academic periodical publication)
6. comic (magazine that uses sequences of drawings to tell a story or series of stories)

From Middle High German hefte, from Old High German hefti, from Proto-Germanic *haftiją. Cognate with Dutch heft, English haft.

Heft n (genitive Heftes or Hefts, plural Hefte)

1. (literary, historical, specialist or regional, widely obsolete) haft; handle (of a weapon or certain tools)

• In large parts of Germany, this word is unknown even to well educated native speakers. Even the common expression das Heft in der Hand haben/halten (“to be in charge”, literally “to hold the haft in one's hand”) is interpreted as a derivative of etymology 1.

Compare German Heft, Dutch heft, English haft.

Heft n

1. hilt