After a rousing toast, people may express their agreement through clapping, raising their glasses, or yelling “here, here” — or is it “hear, hear”? The phrase is widespread, but since it’s usually spoken, the spelling isn’t often questioned. But do you know which is the correct version? The verb “hear” and the adverb “here” are homophones, meaning they have the same pronunciation.
“Here” denotes place, so “here, here” could reasonably explain you’re in the same place as someone. However, when you want to agree with someone, “hear, hear” is correct.
In the United Kingdom, members of Parliament are discouraged from applauding, but even hundreds of years ago, they wanted a way to show solidarity with a speaker. To confirm consensus, people in the House of Lords and House of Commons yelled “hear him, hear him” in the 17th century as a way to demand that everyone listen to the person making the point. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the written origin to 1689 in reference to agreeing with someone in the English Parliament. By 1868, the abbreviated cry of “hear, hear!” as a cheer or exclamation was widespread. It was a common enough exclamation to noun-ify it, and the British prime minister called those using the phrase the “hear-hearers.”
If you’re not a member of Parliament bound by historical convention, you can still use “hear, hear” in regular conversation. Whatever you want to emphasize, yelling “hear, hear!” is the equivalent of “they’re right!” or in today’s parlance, a succinct “heard.”
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