What is "hessian"

Hessian \Hes"sian\, a. Of or relating to Hesse, in Germany, or to the Hessians.

Hessian boots, or Hessians, boot of a kind worn in England, in the early part of the nineteenth century, tasseled in front.
--Thackeray.

Hessian cloth, or Hessians, a coarse hempen cloth for sacking.

Hessian crucible. See under Crucible.

Hessian fly (Zo["o]l.), a small dipterous fly or midge ( Cecidomyia destructor). Its larv[ae] live between the base of the lower leaves and the stalk of wheat, and are very destructive to young wheat; -- so called from the erroneous idea that it was brought into America by the Hessian troops, during the Revolution.

Hessian \Hes"sian\, n.

1. A native or inhabitant of Hesse.

2. A mercenary or venal person. [U. S.]

   Note: This use is a relic of the patriot hatred of the Hessian mercenaries who served with the British troops in the Revolutionary War.

3. pl. See Hessian boots and cloth, under Hessian, a.

"resident of the former Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel," western Germany; its soldiers being hired out by the ruler to fight for other countries, especially the British during the American Revolution, the name Hessians (unjustly) became synonymous with "mercenaries." Hessian fly (Cecidomyia destructor) was a destructive parasite the ravaged U.S. crops late 18c., so named 1787 in erroneous belief that it was carried into America by the Hessians.

n. (19th century) a man's high tasseled boot [syn: Hessian boot, jackboot, Wellington, Wellington boot]

Hessians is the term given to the 18th century German auxiliaries contracted for military service by the British government, which found it easier to borrow money to pay for their service than to recruit its own soldiers. They took their name from the German state of Hesse-Kassel. The British hired Hessian troops for combat duty in several eighteenth century conflicts, but they are most widely associated with combat operations in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).

About 30,000 German soldiers fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War, making up a quarter of the troops the British sent to America. They entered the British service as entire units, fighting under their own German flags, commanded by their usual officers, and wearing their existing uniforms. The largest contingent came from the state of Hesse, which supplied about 40% of the German troops who fought for the British. The large number of troops from Hesse-Kassel led to the use of the term Hessians to refer to all German troops fighting on the British side, a form of synecdoche. The others were rented from other small German states.

Patriots presented the soldiers as foreign mercenaries with no stake in America. Many of the men were press-ganged into Hessian service. Deserters were summarily executed or beaten by an entire company. Hessian prisoners of war were put to work on local farms and were offered land bounties to desert, which many did.

A Hessian is an inhabitant of the German state of Hesse.

Hessian may also refer to:

• Named from the toponym:
  • Hessian (soldier), eighteenth-century German regiments in service with the British Empire
    • Hessian (boot), a style of boot
    • Hessian fabric, coarse woven material
    • Hessian fly or barley midge, a species of fly (thought to be introduced by Hessian soldiers)
  • Hessian dialects, West Central German group of dialects
  • Hessian crucible
• Named for Otto Hesse:
  • Hessian matrix, in mathematics, is a matrix of second partial derivatives
    • Hessian affine region detector
    • Hessian automatic differentiation
    • Hessian equation
  • Hessian pair or Hessian duad in mathematics
  • Hessian form of an elliptic curve
  • Hessian group
  • Glossary of classical algebraic geometry § Hessian, other mathematical objects called Hessian
• Other:
  • Hessian (Web service protocol)
  • Hessian (video game) for the Commodore 64 made in 2016 by Covert Bitops

Hessian is a binary Web service protocol that makes Web services usable without requiring a large framework, and without learning a new set of protocols . Because it is a binary protocol, it is well-suited to sending binary data without any need to extend the protocol with attachments.

Hessian was developed by Caucho Technology, Inc. The company has released Java, Python and ActionScript for Adobe Flash implementations of Hessian under an open source license (the Apache license). Third-party implementations in several other languages ( C++, C#, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Objective-C, D, and Erlang) are also available as open-source.

Hessian (; from Hesse in Germany) refers to a style of light boot that became popular from the beginning of the 19th century. Initially used as standard issue footwear for light cavalry regiments, especially hussars, they would become widely worn by civilians as well. The boots had a low heel, and a semi-pointed toe that made them practical for mounted troops, as they allowed easy use of stirrups. They reached to the knee and had a decorative tassel at the top of each shaft, with a "v" notch in front. The Hessian boot would evolve into the rubber work boots known as " wellies" and the cowboy boot.

When describing the appearance of Marley's Ghost in A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens mentions the tassels on his boots, indicating that they were Hessian style. In Chapter 3 of Thackery's Vanity Fair, in a scene set in England during the Napoleonic Wars, Joseph Sedley is described as wearing Hessian boots.

In the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Patience, Colonel Calverley sings a song about the military uniform, how impressive it looks, and the effect it has on women. The song specifically mentions Hessian boots (note that W. S. Gilbert's rhyme presumes the older pronunciation of Hessian (compare "Russian" and "Prussian"):