Hear me! Hear me!

Me: I'm back! *jazz hands*
You: ...TWO YEARS, Chanel. It's been two years!
Me: *shame* I know...I'm sorry.
You: But two years?! That's such a long gap. How can we possibly want to follow you now?
Me: I've forgone you, but I have not forgotten you, dear Internet readers. I'm sorry. *more shame*
You: *grumbling*
Me: But I promise, I'll make you laugh! *sweating profusely*
You: Alright! *high five*
Me:

So now that that's settled, I'd like to talk to you about a phrase: "Here, here!"

...Or is it "hear, hear!"? Or, ohmygod, is it "here, hear!"?

I was chatting with a friend this morning and went to type it and I realized...I've only ever shouted this phrase! I have no idea how to type it! Here and hear are homonyms. What a fun word. Homonym. You should probably say it out loud. Drag it out, too. Hooooooooooooooomonym. Trust me, I'm an expert at not looking foolish in front of people, especially not your coworkers. [Not that you'd be reading my blog at work. *cough*]

Anyway. Hear and here: homonyms. That means that they sound alike but have different meanings. And you may be reading this thinking, "Yeah, so? Obviously it must be "hear, hear!" because you're saying it in response to something you're hearing! Duh!" But, hear me out (😉):

I thought at first, maybe it's "here, here!" Because you're drawing attention to the here and now, to the place and time where whatever the person doing the speaking is probably excitedly speaking about/to. Like, you're attempting to rally the crowd and boost followers.

Then, I thought, No. Maybe it's "hear, hear!" Because you're hearing what the person is saying. But why in the world would you be shouting "hear, hear!" when you are already listening? When shouting about hearing is literally only going to make it more difficult to hear? That seems silly. [Almost as silly as, say...shouting "hooooooooooooooomonym" out of the blue.]

And then I realized, AHA! It's GOT to be "here, hear!" Because if you're shouting for people to hear, then they must not be paying attention. So you must be shouting "here!" to get the attention of those who are in fact here, or there, wherever. And THEN you're shouting "hear!" as an instruction for them to listen! Stroke of brilliance, I tell you. Stroke. Of. Brilliance.

Then I Googled it. 

My instincts have failed me! My powers of deduction have failed me! The horror!

Turns out, my second guess was the (mostly) correct guess. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the phrase is defined as:

“hear, hear!” in British English: said to strongly agree with what someone else has just said.

A definition from a reputable source is all well and good, but you know me, I want to know more. Like, who in the world decided to yell "hear, hear!" to agree with what someone has just said? And less reference-worthy websites haven't let me down. (I mean, do they ever?)

There seems to be a consensus from the grammar bloggers of the world that the phrase derives from the shortening of Ye Olden "hear him! hear him!" or "hear this! hear this!" Note, there was no "hear her! hear her!" because, god, who would want to hear what women have to say, let alone let them speak publicly? Amirite? Also, ALSO. (this part makes me snort): for anyone who wants to talk about how the younger generation is killing language by shortening words and phrases, I say take it up with the 17th century and get back to me. [Alright, alright. It's not the same. But still!]

So, anyway. The phrase is, in fact, "Hear, hear!" And I guess you're supposed to wait until the person doing the speaking is already DONE speaking before you get excited and shout it in agreement. The Cambridge Dictionary says so. And they have a .org TLD. So there.