ham

Forms

hām m (strong a-stem; genitive singular hāmes, nominative plural hāmas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *haim, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“home, village”).^[1][2] The noun is common Germanic: Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍃 (haims, “village”) (a feminine), Old Norse heimr (“home, world”), Old Frisian hēm, Old Saxon hēm and Old High German heim.^[3][2][4]

Kroonen explains it as a noun in Proto-Indo-European *-mos made to the root Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to lie”), the root of Ancient Greek κεῖμαι (keîmai, “to lie”), and compares Old Irish and Welsh adjectives meaning "dear", which shifted from "belonging to the same home".^[3] Köbler and Holthausen connect it with the same root.^[5][4] Wiktionary gives as an alternative a root Proto-Indo-European *tḱey- (“to settle, dwell”), and Etymonline follows that root.^[1][6]

Proto-Germanic /ai/ appears as ⟨ā⟩ here, beside the ⟨ē⟩ of the Old Frisian and Old Saxon forms.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded in the ninth century in a Kentish will of the ealdorman Oswulf and his wife Beornthryth, dated 805×810: food is to be given from the community's common goods ðaer aet ham “there at home”.^[7][8] Its single sheet is of the ninth century, held to be contemporary by Parsons and to have been drafted and written in the 840s by Crick.^[7][8] The Pastoral Care (890×897) has the adverb: the sheep that was lost they did not seek ne ham ne brohtan “nor brought home”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give the senses home, house, dwelling and estate, rendering Latin domus, mansio, possessio and praedium; the word is used of heaven and hell as dwellings, of the royal residence, and of landed property in wills.^[10] The adverbial uses are frequent from the first: hām “homewards” with verbs of motion, and æt hām “at home”.^[11][12] In the laws a man's hām is his homestead, the king's hām a crown estate.^[11] The endingless locative æt hām “at home” is regular with the simplex, as in place-names in -hām.^[13] In Beowulf it means home, dwelling, residence.^[14] The Lindisfarne gloss renders domus, mansio and possessio with it.^[15]

As the second element of place-names, -hām marks a homestead or village; an early example is Meopham in Kent, in an original charter of 939.^[13][16] The word lived on as Middle English hom, a dwelling or estate, and as the adverb hom “homeward”, now English home.^[17][6]

Timeline

• s. ix – ðaer aet ham “there at home” in Oswulf's will (805×810), in a ninth-century single sheet.^[7][8]
• 890×897 – ham ne brohtan “nor brought home” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[9][8]
• s. ix/x – healfe æt ham, healfe ute “half at home, half out”, of Alfred's army in the annal for 894 of the Parker Chronicle.^[18][8]
• 939 – the place-name Meopham (Meap hames) in Athelstan's charter, an original.^[16][8]
• s. x med. – welige hamas “splendid dwellings” in the Old English Boethius.^[19][8]
• a1131 – Middle English ham “dwelling” in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. home, house, dwelling, residence.^[10][14]
2. a house with land, estate, property; a homestead.^[10][11]
3. a village; in place-names, a homestead or village.^[5][1]

Adverb

1. homewards;^[12][11] æt hām, at home.^[12][11]

Word family

• hāmweard
• hāmsōcn
• hāmcūþ
• hāmfæst
• hāmlēas
• heofonhām
• bisċophām

Descendants

• Middle English hom (→ English home; English -ham; Scots hame)^[1]

Related words

• hīwan
• hǣman

Usage notes

A separate noun ham, with a short vowel, means a covering or under-garment: it glosses Latin camisa and colobium.^[10][20] The Épinal and Erfurt glossaries have it as haam for camisa.^[21] Holthausen compares Old Norse hamr (“covering, skin”) and refers it to hama “covering”.^[4] Bosworth and Toller also list hamm “ham of the knee” and hamm “enclosed land”, both often written ham.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 170
3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 201
4. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 148
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hām
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1188
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
10. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 506
11. ^ a b c d e Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 109
12. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 103
13. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.18
14. ^ a b Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. hām
15. ^ Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. ham
16. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 447
17. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
18. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 83
19. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
20. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ham 1
21. ^ Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 103