What does 'heffish' mean?

[Lutirat]

Hello everybody!

I read books in English to my 3,5 year old daughter. In a story about Winnie the Pooh I came across a word 'heffish' ('He had a heffish sort of look').
What does it mean
I couldn't find it in any dictionary. There are examples on the Web but I can't figure out the meaning.


Thanks,
Wojciech

[Dawood Usmani]

Hello everybody!

I read books in English to my 3,5 year old daughter. In a story about Winnie the Pooh I came across a word 'heffish' ('He had a heffish sort of look').
What does it mean
I couldn't find it in any dictionary. There are examples on the Web but I can't figure out the meaning.


Thanks,
Wojciech

Are you sure of this spelling? I think it's 'huffish' which means peevish; irritable; sulky;swaggering; insolent;Arrogant; bullying.
Look at the context and I'm sure you'll soon figure out what it means.
Reply back.

[Lutirat]

Are you sure of this spelling? I think it's 'huffish' (...)

No,no it's not 'huffish'. It's 'heffish'.
It referred to a creature which scuttled across a yard and had 'a heffish sort of look'.
The book was from US - maybe that will help?

[BobK]

Winnie the Pooh made up words - some of which, like 'heffalump', have an obvious meaning, and some of which, like 'woozle' and 'wizzle' (both large and frightful animals) don't. He also made random spelling mistakes - such as his sign at 'the North Pole' - 'DIKSUVRD BY POOH' (I may have got the precise misspelling wrong, but you get the idea). He also makes up derivatives, such as 'thingish'; and he also changes word classses (in response to 'How are you?' on one occasion he said 'Not very how.')

In 'heffish' he may have been conflating 'huffish' and 'heffalump' (if that was a recent adventure) or he may just have been trying (as he often did) to impress his audience by using a strange word.

b

[bhaisahab]

No,no it's not 'huffish'. It's 'heffish'.
It referred to a creature which scuttled across a yard and had 'a heffish sort of look'.
The book was from US - maybe that will help?

The Winnie the Pooh stories are very British, and not at all from the USA.

[BobK]

The Winnie the Pooh stories are very British, and not at all from the USA.

... so we must be dealing with a spin-off from the Disney film.

b

[konungursvia]

The Winnie the Pooh stories are very British, and not at all from the USA.

It's all actually completely Canadian. Winnie was named after Winnipeg by a soldier who missed home, and Christopher Robin was a real boy here.

[bhaisahab]

It's all actually completely Canadian. Christopher Robin was a real boy here.

He no doubt emigrated to Australia in later life, (by way of India where he befriended Tigger) and subsequently set up home with Kanga and Roo in the suburbs of Brisbane.

[konungursvia]

He found Melbourne too cold I guess.

[bhaisahab]

He found Melbourne too cold I guess.

Tigger would certainly prefer the climate in Brisbane, it would remind him of his former home in the jungles of India.