Herf origin discussion

B

bhudson57

Lowland Gorilla
Upon searching for the origin of the term "herf," I found myself more confused than when I started. Can anyone enlighten me to how the term came about? I realize (from my search) that there might be several ideas and therefore, in my opinion, there are no incorrect answers.
 
There was an old timer in NYC named Herfenstein, who used to have the boys over to smoke stogies and play cards. All the locals started to say they were going to Herf's which shortened to Herfing and it was used as code to keep wives from knowing that the boys were smoking, drinking and gambling...
 
SmokinApe said:
There was an old timer in NYC named Herfenstein, who used to have the boys over to smoke stogies and play cards. All the locals started to say they were going to Herf's which shortened to Herfing and it was used as code to keep wives from knowing that the boys were smoking, drinking and gambling...
Click to expand...

That true?
 
SmokinApe said:
There was an old timer in NYC named Herfenstein, who used to have the boys over to smoke stogies and play cards. All the locals started to say they were going to Herf's which shortened to Herfing and it was used as code to keep wives from knowing that the boys were smoking, drinking and gambling...
Click to expand...

See post #2. ;)
 
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.
 
The term is a derivative of several languages. To better understand the true meaning of the word one must realize that language is a changing thing; it moves about with various social structures, from land to land. The Greek derivation is "erphos" from "eos", meaning 'skin'. This is further by a review of the Greek words "Terphos" and Sterphos." This is actually only the begining of the common, or present usage of the term. An example of the way language travels, and is bastardized, is to be seen in the American Indian Language of Taino. In this language the use of the word "Hura" means wind. The proper pronunciation if akin to "Herf", actually *hurrof*. Now, when you review the Greek's meanderings throughout the Ancient World, you will understand that they travelled to the British Isles. Any stury can tell you this. The Welsh word we would look to is "Herfeiddio", a verb which means to dare, to be brave, and to defy. Further North and a bit Eastward we must review the Dutch word "Herfst" and the Anglo-Saxon derivitive "Haerfest". These words refer to the mnal season, or the end of summer. The end of summer is when they harvested the tobacco leaves. See also, the Greek word "Apora", meaning 'end-of-summer'. Brave souls (Herfeiddiols), would take the freshly harvestd leaves (Erphos=skin=tobacco leaves), at the harvest (Herfst/Haerfest), and smoke them. Somehow the word found it's way into America, pre-Columbus. The Taino people, simple and naive as they were, took all the above meanings and rolled them into one, thus "Hura" meaning 'wind'.review of the lore of the Taino finds this word used as both a verb and a noun. As a noun it has the simple meaning of "wind", as we use it, today. As a verb, however, it means:"he-who-harvests-the-thin-tobacco-leaves-of-harvest-time-and-smokes- it." I hope that my painstakingly long search for the true meaning of Herf finally puts the damn thing to rest.
 
In 1827 a man named Emmanuel Herfiger planted a bit of Cuban seed in his small backyard plot in Philadelphia. He lived near Independence Hall, it just so happens. Old Manny vowed not to smoke another stogie until his seed grew, was harvested, aged, and rolled into what would appear today to look like a Robusto. Well, the day before he was to smoke his first home-grown cigar happened to be July 4th. At that time fireworks were fairly primitive things and there was of course no warning written on the package they came in. Come to think of it, they didn't come in any package at all. Anyway, Manny's 11 year old son, who his friend's called "Herf," the way we would call someone Smitty, suggested that Manny not wait the day and instead light some 4th of July fireworks with the first of his cigars. "Sounds good to me," said Manny, lighting up that first Robusto with the forerunner of a match. I think it was a stick with some wax on the end that one stuck into a fire. Anyway, the thing lit up like an LGC on a Blazer, prompting Manny to take two or three puffs. Man, he was in cigar smokers heaven! The damn thing tasted like it had been grown, aged, and hand rolled in Cuba! Then he made his fateful mistake... He picked up what we would today call a Cherry Bomb; one with a short fuse. Manny lit the damn thing and before he could get it clear of his cigar, never mind his face, all was lost. Well, at Manny's wake his wife Lula (some say it was spelled Loola, records are scarce,) insisted that Manny's friends smoke his cigars and drink his whiskey. (Notice that's whiskey with an 'e,' not that other stuff.) This they did, spreading the word of what a great guy Manny had been. And so, to this day, when you sit around smoking a good cigar, perhaps with drink in hand, you will forever owe a debt of gratitude to the man, who after his death, was responsible for coining the term "herf."
 
Slang for "to smoke/consume mass quantities of Cigars" in one continuous sitting" originating from the Greek "to herd" and combined with the Japanese "Ferfo", "to blow your topknot"
 
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.
 
chippewastud79 said:
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.
Click to expand...

This one's a new one! :r

I knew this would be entertaining...
 
All this :BS 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.
 
C'MON GUYS -LETS BE REAL

Everyone knows that in the early 20th century that tobacco products were scarce because of WWI and the European locals were forced to dry and smoke road apples from the Heifers that were plentiful in the farming areas-Hence when people got together for some "Tasty" ersatz smokes they would be Heifing it--which became Herfing it in English
 
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!
 
chippewastud79 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Now THAT'S just funny!:ss
 
Already posted on CS:

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/archive/index.php/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?search=huff&searchmode=none)

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

A Pittsburghese (http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Port/9832/pittsburgh.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/pseudodoxia/pseudo53.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/magicicada/Periodical/CicadaGraphics/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/v102/altramagnus/CAOmx2_B.jpg

A closer view (http://people.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/cigars/or_1996_opus_x_plume_closeup.jpg)

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chippewastud79 said:
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.
Click to expand...

was this person who 'herfed sheep' from australia?

stearns
 
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