What is a herf?

[Papa Herf]

For all us newbies who don't spring from the head of MotheMan with a full complement of cigar knowledge and wisdom, I found the answer to a question I posed during a recent chat. DISCLAIMER - this is NOT my work, someone else put it together, I take no credit whatsoever for the truths or untruths therein. That said, here is what I found:

[SIZE=2]What Is A Herf?[/SIZE]

Herf? What the heck IS a herf? You're new to this cigar business; you're surfing from site to site, and this word keeps cropping up- 'herf'. Lot's of people write 'herf', but nobody tells to what on earth 'herf' means. Well, we will!

It's a term coined in the alt.smokers.cigars newsgroup, way back in 1996. 'Herf' caught on, and has been part of the cigar lexicon ever since. Below is the definitive posting at ACS on the origin of 'herf'...

HERF - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The un-official word of ASC is Herf. Herf is a unique part of speech. It can be correctly used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, an infinitive, a prefix, a suffix and an explicative.

The arcane word "herf" first entered the ASC lexicon on November 21, 1996, and was quickly elevated to frenetic and common use by ASCers. The Prince of Skeeves exposed ASC to the word herf in a casual posting to the group... however it was ASCers, as a budding collective, who took the word and made it divine.

Herf is now virulently spreading to worldwide common use as hip cigar parlance.

HERF - CHRONOLOGY:

As for the origin of Herf, here's the History of Herf (it's a matter of record on DejaNews)...
The word "herf" first appeared on ASC...
-------- [post quoted below] ----------------------------------
It was November 21, 1996... the elections were over, and "herf" unceremoniously beams into our lexicon... And, you were there (here's the exact post)...
************************************************** ****
Subject: worst cigars IMHO
From: aloysius@gte.net (Prince of Skeeves)
1996/11/21
Message-ID: <571i9b$ht4@news3.gte.net>
Newsgroups: alt.smokers.cigars

I bought a Canaria d'Oro(sic?)Robusto out of curiousity
and it was really a horrible, stale,grassy smoke with a
peed-on taste. I gave it about 2 inches before I put it
out. Also, anything Macanudo...I tried several when I
first began smoking cigars and found them all to be very
bland and almost impossible to herf, they were so tightly
wrapped. I think the list of `Mediocre Smokes' for most
folks would be huge.

************************************************** ****

And, the voices of ASCers cry out immediately... saying, "what is this _herf_ thing?" In answer... on November 23, Prince of Skeeves elucidates,

Message-ID: <5770op$cqu@news1.gte.net>:
To `herf' is to draw on a cigar.

The voices of ASC follow in chorus: "this herf thing... it is good" And, in a grand gesture, full grace is shared...

Subject: an early definition of the word...
From: aloysius@gte.net (Prince of Skeeves)
1997/07/11
Message-ID: <5q5f19$dfa$1@news12.gte.net>
Newsgroups: alt.smokers.cigars

EVERYONE MUST HERF

The first time I heard the word `herf' and recognized
it's potential for the enrichment of my vocabulary was
in junior college in Clyde, Texas in 1982 from a blueblood
derelict friend of my named Stu. In the context of the
time it was used to describe the ungainly and humorous
facial contortion required to deeply draw on a large,
hand-rolled cigarette of unknown filling while driving
a motor vehicle and keeping an eye peeled for the
Callahan County sheriff. Later I found the term `herf'
described nicely the method for getting a good mouthful
of tasty smoke from my favorite cigars.(Padron and HDM
Rothschilds)

S. delaVega
Prince of Skeeves

-------- [end quoted post] ----------------------------------

So, that's the herf story... on 11/21/96 "Prince of Skeeves" (whoever he/she/it is/was) introduced our newsgroup to its very own beloved word... And, as a bonus...

HERF LEVITY:

Herf... a word which is now spreading to virtually all corners of the cigar world... thanks to the likes of the many and varied distinguished herfing enthusiasts (herfnicks)... such as:

the good Dr. Miguelit (used on his many national radio interviews),
Mr. Lew Rothman (used proudly and prominently on JR's Winter catalog issue's front cover),
ASC elder Mr. Bob Curtis (used liberally all over the ICG website),
the Hon. Steven Saka (used strategically at least four times in the course of the 1997 New Hampshire state senatorial debate and once as an invective following the debate's broadcast, which, btw, was televised on CSPAN-3 to over a half-billion viewers worldwide, including the space shuttle mission crew),
Connie Whittager, perky weatherwoman on Montgomery, Alabama's WKKG-TV (used to describe the fog which paralyzed suburban roadways for two straight days in April 1997... in an interview on the Weather Channel, she explained, "...motorists were advised to avoid the western beltway and all lakeside arteries due to a stationary fog bank thicker than a hundred hounddogs herfin' Hondurans in a hayloft", and
by Jorge Jesus Delgado, Jr., now departed, (who ardently pleaded to "herf a cigar" before his execution in the Texas death-house in October 1997)... ...just to mention a few of the notables!
PS: Remember... November 21 is World Herfing Day!!! Sorry you asked, huh?<g> Regards, ...JC

So now you know the meaning of 'herf'!

HOPE THIS HELPS - LONG LIVE GEORGE BURNS

[Aaron]

I dabble in etymology (study of the origin of words) and have been Googling around for an authoritative answer to the origin of herf and cigar.

[SIZE=4]herf is a mutation of the word huff.[/SIZE]

huff at Dictionary.com
c.1450, apparently imitative of exhaling. Extended sense of "bluster with indignation" is attested from 1599. Huffy "ready to take offense" is from 1680.

We tell our kids stories about the three pigs and the wolf who huffed and puffed.

A Pittsburghese website has the following:

Ignernt-Here's a word guaranteed to confuse any new arrival to Pittsburgh. To everyone else the word ignorant(whence ignernt derives) means uninformed or lacking in knowledge. But in Pittsburgh, ignernt means rude.

Recall how Archie Bunker used to pronounce words, sometimes dropping and sometimes inserting "r's" where they never were.

I think there's a strong chance that huff became herf. It sounded funnier to say herf, and so it stuck.

[SIZE=4]Cigar = grasshopper[/SIZE]
Another word I examined was in the word cigarra, which is the Spanish word for grasshopper. On this site:

The mistake therefore with us might have its originall from a defect in our language; for having not the insect with us, we have not fallen upon its proper name, and so make use of a tearme common unto it and the Locust, whereas other countries have proper expressions for it; so the Italian calls it cicada, the Spaniard cigarra, and the French cigale; all which appellations conforme unto the original, and properly expresse this animal. Whereas our word is borrowed from the Saxon Gærsthopp, which our forefathers, who never beheld the Cicada, used for that insect which we yet call a Grashopper.

Here's a cicada:


Doesn't the wing look a little like the veins in the CAO Mx2 from ShawnP's signature?



A closer view

[ShawnP]

Damn I am getting busted on by a Noob


Hmmm what can I change his name to?????? Hmm must think about this one.


Just kinding by the way


Don't like CAOs??

[germantown rob]

[QUOTE=ShawnP]Damn I am getting busted on by a Noob

When does a noob stop being a noob?

[ShawnP]

[QUOTE=germantown rob]

Originally Posted by ShawnP

Damn I am getting busted on by a Noob

When does a noob stop being a noob?

I said I was joking because I am a noob.

[germantown rob]

Originally Posted by ShawnP

I said I was joking because I am a noob.

Wel then...

[ShawnP]

Originally Posted by germantown rob

Wel then...

well ok then

[illuminatus]

Wait... I'm a newb too!

[illuminatus]

And you may want to check out Aaron's user title now!

[ShawnP]

Originally Posted by illuminatus

And you may want to check out Aaron's user title now!

Sweet

Now I really have to do something about that empty ass humidor you got.

[illuminatus]

Originally Posted by ShawnP

Sweet

Now I really have to do something about that empty ass humidor you got.

Hah, my pleasure brother! And, sadly enough, I spent last night getting MORE credits, instead of studying for my 3 tests today.. so I have enough to do someone else... which puts me at about 4K credits in 3 days.. I AM AMAZING..

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by ShawnP

Damn I am getting busted on by a Noob


Hmmm what can I change his name to?????? Hmm must think about this one.

Just kinding by the way

Don't like CAOs??

Funny... the last stick I had was an Mx2. Love 'em just slightly less than the CAO Brazilia, which is my most frequent choice.

I just chose the image because it showed the veins nicely.

I'm amused by the nickname, fellas.

Now when do I get to try to snatch a pebble from your hand?

[ShawnP]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Funny... the last stick I had was an Mx2. Love 'em just slightly less than the CAO Brazilia, which is my most frequent choice.

I just chose the image because it showed the veins nicely.

I'm amused by the nickname, fellas.

Now when do I get to try to snatch a pebble from your hand?

Once you get 1000 credits you change someone's name.

All in good fun my friend

I like the Brazilia also but then again most of the CAO line I feel is a good cigar.

I think the Italia,Brazilia and the MX2 are my Fav out of the CAOs.

Shawn

[illuminatus]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Funny... the last stick I had was an Mx2. Love 'em just slightly less than the CAO Brazilia, which is my most frequent choice.

I just chose the image because it showed the veins nicely.

I'm amused by the nickname, fellas.

Now when do I get to try to snatch a pebble from your hand?

Glad you found it funny.. I changed it in jest, as there's something of a user title war going on around here (this thread, if you haven't seen it)... then I thought about it and realized you don't know me, and might get offended.... glad you can take a joke, and welcome to the Jungle! And go after ShawnP when you get your 1000 credits, not me!

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by illuminatus

Glad you found it funny.. I changed it in jest, as there's something of a user title war going on around here (this thread, if you haven't seen it)... then I thought about it and realized you don't know me, and might get offended.... glad you can take a joke, and welcome to the Jungle! And go after ShawnP when you get your 1000 credits, not me!

May the sticks of herfers sans humor be smitten with dehydration!

By the way, can anyone tell who my avatar is and what he's doing?