heft

Etymology 1

From Middle English heft, derived from Middle English heven (“to lift, heave”), equivalent to heave + -t (“-th”). For development, compare English weft from weave, cleft from cleave, theft from thieve, etc.

noun

1. (uncountable) Weight.
   a man of his age and heft 1859, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford
   Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. Heaviness, the feel of weight; heftiness.
   A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.
   Unlike most moons of the solar system, ours has the heft, the gravitational gravitas, to pull itself into a sphere. 7 September 2014, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face”, in The New York Times
   he skull was an awkward armload. Bizarrely, its size, shape, and long, narrow bill brought to mind the head of Big Bird from Sesame Street, but with none of bird-bone’s lightness: It had heft and density. 30 Mar 2021, J. B. MacKinnon, “An Entire Group of Whales Has Somehow Escaped Human Attention”, in The Atlantic
3. (figurative) Influence; importance.
   Put more baldly, the reason why Republicans and British Conservatives started giving each other copies of Atlas Shrugged in the 80s was that Rand seemed to grant intellectual heft to the prevailing ethos of the time. 2017-04-10, Jonathan Freedland, “The new age of Ayn Rand: how she won over Trump and Silicon Valley”, in The Guardian
4. The act or effort of heaving; violent strain or exertion.
5. (US, dated, colloquial) The greater part or bulk of anything.
   The turkey's nest was islanded with a fragrant swath , the “heft” of the crop noted and rejoiced over. 1865, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, The Gayworthys: a Story of Threads and Thrums

verb

1. (transitive) To lift up; especially, to lift something heavy.
   He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.
2. (transitive) To test the weight of something by lifting it.
3. (obsolete) past participle of heave

Etymology 2

From English and Scots dialect, ultimately from Old Norse hefð (“possession, statute of limitations, prescriptive right”) (compare Old Norse hefða (“to acquire prescriptive rights”)), from Proto-Germanic *habiþō, equivalent to have + -t (“-th”). Cognate with Scots heft, heff (“an accustomed pasture”).

noun

1. (Northern England) A piece of mountain pasture to which a farm animal has become hefted (accustomed).
2. An animal that has become hefted thus.
3. (West of Ireland) Poor condition in sheep caused by mineral deficiency.

verb

1. (transitive, Northern England and Scotland) To make (a farm animal, especially a flock of sheep) accustomed and attached to an area of mountain pasture.

Etymology 3

From German Heft (“notebook”).

noun

1. A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as for a notebook.
2. A part of a serial publication.
   The size of "hefts" will depend on the material requiring attention, and the annual volume is to cost about 15 marks. 1900, The Nation, volume 70