I agree wholeheartedly!

[Franca]

I often see it written as "Here, here!", but it's "Hear, hear!" is it not? As in, "Yes, listen to this, it's exactly right!" I bring this up because I've seen the expression used three times (in three different places) over the past couple of weeks, and each time it was spelled, "Here, here!" and I am now wondering if I have been wrong all of these years!

[iamback]

I often see it written as "Here, here!", but it's "Hear, hear!" is it not? As in, "Yes, listen to this, it's exactly right!"That's what I always understood it to be - I'm always suprised to see "here, here", and think: "why not there?".

[Richard Waller]

The joke phrase is 'ici, ici'

[Bo Aakerstrom]

A bit like comforting someone with "There, there" to which the response is "where, where"!

[ktinkel]

I often see it written as "Here, here!", but it's "Hear, hear!" is it not? As in, "Yes, listen to this, it's exactly right!" Absolutely! Or should I say “Hear, hear!”?

I keep seeing it the other way and fear it may take over, despite the fact that it means nothing at all!

[LoisWakeman]

Franca: this is what I found:

hear! hear! used to express wholehearted agreement with something said in a speech.

- ORIGIN OE hīeran, hēran, of Gmc origin.

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Syndicated edition for Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators. 27 June 2006.

I keep thinking that if I had time, I'd start a blog about the misuse of the English language. But life and work get in the way.

[ktinkel]

I keep thinking that if I had time, I'd start a blog about the misuse of the English language. But life and work get in the way.I have those ideas too. (Actually, mine are about both language and typographic usage, which often intertwine.)

Too bad we have to take care of so much other stuff, huh? <g?

[Franca]

Hi, Lois,

I found something similar to that, as well entires like this one which show origins for the whole phrase and variations in its usage:

Hear hear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear_hear)

Wikipedia was not the only source to cite the Parliamentary usage as being a contraction of "Hear him, hear him!"

[Richard Waller]

Bill Bryson has a book 'Mother Tongue - The English Language' which I find good. How words are absorbed, rebuilt, corrupted, and used on the street. Fascinating.