What's a "Hayday"? Is it Amish? sez you.

Huhn? Why Amish? sez me.

Anyway - I assumed the word came from "hay", as in "make hay when the sun shines", my thinking being that your "hay"day is when the sun is shining for you and you're making hay, in other words, prospering and preparing for the hard times ahead. Apparently my etymology, like my spelling, was wrong:


[Origin: 1580–90; var. of high day, appar. by confusion with heyday2]

hey‧day2  /ˈheɪdeɪ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hey-dey] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–interjection Archaic. (used as an exclamation of cheerfulness, surprise, wonder, etc.)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: 1520–30; rhyming compound based on hey; r. heyda < G hei da hey there]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source hey·day (hd) Pronunciation Key   
n.
The period of greatest popularity, success, or power; prime.


[Perhaps alteration of heyda, exclamation of pleasure, probably alteration of Middle English hey, hey.]