What is the derivation of the word "hit", as in Hollywood blockbuster?

Dear neo99,

The modern English noun "hit", meaning a huge success such as a movie,
a song or any other successful venture, has its roots in the
Proto-Germanic language, the ancestor of all Germanic languages which
can be reconstructed only theoretically.

In Proto-Germanic, a reconstructed verb "khitjanan" existed, which
later became "hitta" in Old Norse. That meant "to light upon, to meet
with".

That Old Norse verb found its way into the Old English language of the
Middle Ages as "hyttan", meaning "to come upon, to meet with". In the
late phase of Old English shortly before the year 1100, the meaning of
"hyttan" first shifted to "to reach with a blow or missile", and then
to "to strike".

In Middle English, the verb shifted to "hitten" and continued to
evolve. About the year 1400, the verb had become "to hit", with the
meaning "to hit the mark, to succeed".

From that verb, the noun "hit", with its modern meaning "successful
play, song, person" etc. was derived and first recorded in 1811.

Hope this answers your question!
Regards,
Scriptor



Sources:

Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=hit&searchmode=none

Bartleby.com
http://www.bartleby.com/61/1/H0220100.html

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Request for Answer Clarification by neo99-ga on 28 Mar 2005 16:38 PST

Thanks, but could you elaborate on what happened in 1811? I want to
know how, exactly, the meaning of the word "hit" changed from "sucess"
to "massive sucess", specifically in the entertainment context.

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Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 29 Mar 2005 18:17 PST

Dear neo99,

I have spent several hours in the library today, but none of the
etymology dictionaries I consulted provided additional information. So
far, extensive web research did not produce any useful results either.
I will continue my research, and I really hope that I will find more
information.

Regards,
Scriptor

I didn't get the answer, but it turned out to be a tougher question
than I thought. Scriptor tried his/her best.

This may be of interest to you:

"Blockbuster is a term derived from theater slang referring to a
particularly successful play (i.e. one that is so successful that
competing theaters on the block are "busted" and driven out of
business).
However another more popular explanation is that the term was first
derived from the crowds of people that flocked to queue up for George
Lucas's 'Star Wars' in May 1977, and who gathered over several city
blocks, hence the term came into existence."

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/B/Bl/Blockbuster.htm

Best regards,
Rainbow

The second-listed folk etymology for "blockbuster" (1977) is
incorrect. I suspect that the first-listed is also incorrect. The word
existed at least as early as the second world war, when it referred to
a large bomb that would (in soldiers' jocular exaggeration at least)
bust up an entire city block. From that sense came figurative senses
of anything really big, powerful, successful, amazingly effective,
etc.