Herf origin discussion

[poker]

I always was led to believe it originated on ASC

[Bobb]

I believe "Herf" is like the word "Smurf" (and gets its origin from it as well)

It can be a noun, "I went to a Herf yesterday"
It can be a verb: "I Herfed for 15 hours yesterday"
It can be an adjective: "Yesterday was at Herfer Joe's house."
It can be an adverb: "Yesterday, Billy smoked Herfilly with his friends."

So lets all get together and herf with the herfing herfers!

[smokin5]

Originally Posted by chippewastud79

The term "Herf" used to describe the smoking of a cigar comes from the 1960's in America when many cigar smokers listened to Herf Alpert and the Tijuana Brass while smoking their favorite stogie. The music was latinesque and thus provided an atmosphere of semi-Cuban reminiscence. Soon, cigar smokers began to say things like "I was with the Brass last night and the Herf was so good I thought I was in Havana." Thus, we can all thank Herf Alpert for his influence on 'garbonics.

Now THAT'S just funny!

[poker]

Already posted on CS:

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/archive...hp/t-9864.html


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(cut & paste)

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:

What Is A Herf?

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

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Aaron11-29-2005, 02:43 PM
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.

herf is a mutation of the word huff.

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. (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?...earchmode=none)

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

A Pittsburghese (http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/...ittsburgh.html) 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.

Cigar = grasshopper
Another word I examined was in the word cigarra, which is the Spanish word for grasshopper. On this site (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudod...seudo53.html):
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:
http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/magici...Magicicada.jpg

Doesn't the wing look a little like the veins in the CAO Mx2 from ShawnP (http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/member.php?u=2591)'s signature?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...s/CAOmx2_B.jpg

A closer view (http://people.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew...me_closeup.jpg)

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[stearns]

Originally Posted by chippewastud79

Although deadheads may have use the term, that's not how it came into use for cigars. It originated as a spelling error. Some guy whose name is lost to history wrote a post about sheep herding. He accidentally typed a line about "herfing sheep." I replied that sheep were hard to keep lit and that herfing cigars was a lot easier. Shortly after that, another guy, The Prince of Skeeves, used the phrase "bueno herfing" to describe his experience with some good cigars.

was this person who 'herfed sheep' from australia?

stearns

[brigey]

Originally Posted by chippewastud79

Ummm NO

I think that says it all! NO!!!

[SeanGAR]

The origins, my friends, are a lot different than you imagine. Let me take you back to San Francisco … 1848. They had discovered GOLD … GOLD in Sutter’s Mill.



John Sutter, found pieces of shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter, along the American River.[4] Marshall quietly brought what he found to Sutter, and the two of them privately tested the findings. The tests showed Marshall's particles to be gold. Sutter was dismayed by this, and wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there were a mass search for gold.[5] However, rumors soon started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan. The most famous quote of the California Gold Rush was by Brannan; after he had hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies,[6] Brannan strode through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"[7] He was smoking a 2 cent cigar at the time and, at fishermans wharf, he was asked what he was herfin and hawwin about. Brennan held his cigar over his head and said “I’m herfing of gold” … and then dropped stone dead. Since an old Hawai'ian man named I'ce H'og was smoking a cigar close by, the name "herf" began to mean a get together of cigar smokers.

Not only did this start the Stone brewery, but since then cigars and herfing have been inextricably linked.

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

Since an old Hawai'ian man named I'ce H'og was smoking a cigar close by, the name "herf" began to mean a get together of cigar smokers.

I never knew my Uncle I'ce H'og coined the phrase, Sean! Sweet!!

[Major Captain Silly]

Originally Posted by poker

I always was led to believe it originated on ASC

I think you're right. Somewhere around the early-mid 90's.

MCS

[Major Captain Silly]

I think this explains it and makes me miss some of my buddies from alt.smokers.cigars:

http://www.uk-cigars.co.uk/herfs/whatis.htm


MCS

[CobraSkip]

Originally Posted by Studebaker

All this is mind-boggling. The truth of the matter is, herf is actually an acronym for High Energy Radio Frequency weapons. These are are weapons that use high intensity radio waves to disrupt electronics. Terrorists are believed to be planning to use these weapons against our communications infrastructure. Not only can these weapons disrupt electronics, but they can pose grave danger to humans. Some common bio-effects of high energy radio frequency weapons include affects to the human central nervous system resulting in physical pain, difficulty breathing, vertigo, nausea, disorientation, or other systemic discomfort. These symptoms, as we all know, are quite similar to the effects we often experience after smoking multiple cigars in rapid succession. Thus the term H.E.R.F. gradually came to be used to describe the gatherings at which multiple cigars are smoked in rapid succession. And now you know the truth.

Seem you are the only one to wiki herf, however, I must add in the vain of Hog, wiki also notes;
"The factual accuracy of this article is disputed."

[Studebaker]

Originally Posted by CobraSkip

Seem you are the only one to wiki herf, however, I must add in the vain of Hog, wiki also notes;
"The factual accuracy of this article is disputed."

And that differs from the rest of this thread HOW??

[freakygar]

Where is DBall? He loves this topic!

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by ahc4353

Where is DBall? He loves this topic!

Herfing?

[Major Captain Silly]

I was wondering if poker and I get any extra points for trying answer Bill's question in a serious fashion. I only need 3 more points to get a rubber chicken!

MCS