hem
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Remove ads
See also: Appendix:Variations of "hem"
Etymology 1
A sound uttered in imitation of clearing the throat (onomatopoeia)
Pronunciation
Interjection
hem
- Used to fill in the gap of a pause with a vocalized sound.
Noun
hem (plural hems)
- An utterance or sound of the voice like "hem", often indicative of hesitation or doubt, sometimes used to call attention.
- January 8, 1712', John Dryden, The Spectator No. 269
- his morning hems
- January 8, 1712', John Dryden, The Spectator No. 269
Verb
hem (third-person singular simple present hems, present participle hemming, simple past and past participle hemmed)
- To make the sound expressed by the word hem; to hesitate in speaking.
- 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- Hem, and stroke thy beard.
- 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter II, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:
- “Sit down,” said the young man, gruffly. “He’ll be in soon.”
I obeyed; and hemmed, and called the villain Juno, who deigned, at this second interview, to move the extreme tip of her tail, in token of owning my acquaintance.
Derived terms
Translations
See also
Etymology 2
From Middle English hem, hemm, in turn from Old English hem, of West Germanic origin, from Proto-West Germanic *hammjan. Related to Middle High German hemmen (“to hem in”), Old Norse hemja (“to hem in, restrain”); outside of Germanic, to Armenian քամել (kʻamel, “to press, wring”), Russian ком (kom, “lump”).
The verb is from Middle English hemmen, from Old English hemman, from Proto-Germanic *hamjaną, or alternatively derived from the noun.
Pronunciation
Noun
hem (plural hems)
- (sewing) The border of an article of clothing doubled back and stitched together to finish the edge and prevent it from fraying.
- A rim or margin of something.
- c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:
- Entombed upon the very hem o' th' sea
- In sheet metal design, a rim or edge folded back on itself to create a smooth edge and to increase strength or rigidity.
Derived terms
Translations
border of an article of clothing doubled back and stitched together
| |||||||
rim or margin
|
Verb
hem (third-person singular simple present hems, present participle hemming, simple past and past participle hemmed)
- (sewing, intransitive) To make a hem.
- (transitive) To put hem on an article of clothing, to edge or put a border on something.
- (transitive) To shut in, enclose, confine; to surround something or someone in a confining way.
- A small yard hemmed about by a tall hedge.
- 1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way :
- He’s in the saddle now. Fall in! Steady, the whole brigade! Hill’s at the ford, cut off — we’ll win his way out, ball and blade! What matter if our shoes are worn? What matter if our feet are torn? “Quick step! We’re with him before the morn!” That’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
The sun’s bright lances rout the mists of morning, and by George! Here’s Longstreet struggling in the lists, hemmed in an ugly gorge. Pope and his Yankees, whipped before, “Bay’nets and grape!” hear Stonewall roar; “Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby’s score!” in “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.
- He’s in the saddle now. Fall in! Steady, the whole brigade! Hill’s at the ford, cut off — we’ll win his way out, ball and blade! What matter if our shoes are worn? What matter if our feet are torn? “Quick step! We’re with him before the morn!” That’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
Derived terms
Translations
to make a hem
to put hem on an article of clothing
|
Etymology 3
From Middle English hem, from Old English heom (“them”, dative), originally a dative plural form but in Middle English coming to serve as an accusative plural as well. More at 'em.
Pronoun
hem
- Obsolete form of 'em.
- 1481, William Caxton, The Historie of Reynart the Foxe:
- And wente to the kinge and to the queene, and said to hem with a glad cheer.
- 1485, William Caxton, Paris and Vienne:
- For eyther of hem mayntened.
- 1591, John Florio, Second Frutes to be gathered of twelve trees, of diverse but delightful tastes to the tongues of Italian and English:
- ‘What thinke you of this English, tel me I pray you.’ ‘It is a language that wyl do you good in England but passe Dover, it is woorth nothing.’ ‘Is it not used then in other countreyes?’ ‘No sir, with whom wyl you that they speake?’ ‘With English marchants.’ ‘English marchantes, when they are out of England, it liketh hem not, and they doo not speake it.
- 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “May. Ægloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC:
- Tho to the greene wood they speeden hem all.
- 1598, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- Except we make hem such.
- 1605 August (first performance), Geo[rge] Chapman, Ben Ionson, Ioh[n] Marston, Eastward Hoe. […], London: […] [George Eld] for William Aspley, published September 1605, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
- They go forth on Holydays and gather hem by the seashore.
Further reading
- “hem”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “hem”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “hem”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
Remove ads
Alternative forms
Etymology
Pronunciation
Pronoun
hem
See also
| singular | dual | trial | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | exclusive | mi | mitufala | mitrifala | mifala |
| inclusive | — | yumitu, yumitufala | yumitrifala | yumi | |
| 2nd person | yu | yutufala | yutrifala | yufala | |
| 3rd person | neutral | hem, em | tufala | trifala | ol1), olgeta |
| collective | — | tugeta | trigeta | — | |
| 1) Used only as an object of a preposition or a verb. *) Some speakers may not distinguish various plurality categories, using only one or two plural pronouns. **) The collective pronouns specify that the action is performed by all subjects together, rather than on their own. | |||||
Bislama personal pronouns
References
- Terry Crowley (2004) Bislama Reference Grammar, Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi press, →ISBN, page 46
Remove ads
Verb
hem
Etymology
From Middle Dutch hem, from Old Dutch himo, from Proto-Germanic *himmai.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
hem
- (personal) Third-person singular, masculine, objective: him
- Stuur dat maar naar hem. ― Send that to him.
- (personal) The tagger in a game of tag: it
Declension
| subject | object | possessive | reflexive | genitive5 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | full | unstr. | full | unstr. | full | unstr. | pred. | ||
| 1st person | ik | 'k1 | mij | me | mijn | m'n1 | mijne | me | mijner, mijns |
| 2nd person | jij | je | jou | je | jouw | je | jouwe | je | jouwer, jouws |
| 2nd person archaic or regiolectal | gij | ge | u | – | uw | – | uwe | u | uwer, uws |
| 2nd person formal | u | – | u | – | uw | – | uwe | u, zich7 | uwer, uws |
| 3rd person masculine | hij | ie1 | hem | 'm1 | zijn | z'n1 | zijne | zich | zijner, zijns |
| 3rd person feminine | zij | ze | haar | h'r1, 'r1, d'r1 | haar | h'r1, 'r1, d'r1 | hare | zich | harer, haars |
| 3rd person neuter | het | 't1 | het | 't1 | zijn | z'n1 | zijne | zich | zijner, zijns |
| plural | |||||||||
| 1st person | wij | we | ons | – | ons, onze2 | – | onze | ons | onzer, onzes |
| 2nd person | jullie | je | jullie | je | jullie | je | – | je | – |
| 2nd person archaic or regiolectal6 | gij | ge | u | – | uw | – | uwe | u | uwer, uws |
| 2nd person formal | u | – | u | – | uw | – | uwe | u, zich7 | uwer, uws |
| 3rd person | zij | ze | hen3, hun4 | ze | hun | – | hunne | zich | hunner, huns |
| 1) Not as common in written language. 2) Inflected as an adjective. 3) In prescriptivist use, used only as direct object (accusative). 4) In prescriptivist use, used only as indirect object (dative). 5) Archaic. Nowadays used for formal, literary or poetic purposes, and in fixed expressions. 6) To differentiate from the singular gij, gelle (object form elle) and variants are commonly used colloquially in Belgium. Archaic forms are gijlieden and gijlui ("you people"). |
7) Zich is preferred if the reflexive pronoun immediately follows the subject pronoun u, e.g. Meldt u zich aan! 'Log in!', and if the subject pronoun u is used with a verb form that is identical with the third person singular but different from the informal second person singular, e.g. U heeft zich aangemeld. 'You have logged in.' Only u can be used in an imperative if the subject pronoun is not overt, e.g. Meld u aan! 'Log in!', where u is the reflexive pronoun. Otherwise, both u and zich are equally possible, e.g. U meldt u/zich aan. 'You log in.' | ||||||||
Descendants
Remove ads
Pronunciation
Interjection
hem
- interjection expressing doubt and/or hesitation
Further reading
- “hem”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Remove ads
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
Remove ads