hamor

Forms

hamor m (nominative plural hamoras) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hamar, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (“hammer”).^[1][2] The noun is shared with Old Frisian homer, Old Saxon hamar, Old High German hamar and Old Norse hamarr (“hammer; back of an axe; crag”).^[2][3][4]

Kroonen connects it with the Indo-European word for stone, anvil and the vault of heaven, pointing to the Old Norse sense “crag”; to explain its vowel he starts from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂-mor-o-, with the laryngeal and the velar exchanged, as in Proto-Slavic *kamy (“stone”).^[2] Köbler gives Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *komor- (“stone hammer”), and Holthausen asks whether it goes with the Slavic word.^[3][4] Wiktionary mentions as well a proposal that it was borrowed from Finnic.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Exeter Book (s. x²), in Riddle 5, where the shield is struck by homera lafe “the leavings of hammers”, that is, swords, and in Riddle 91, where the key says Min heafod is homere geþuren “my head is forged by the hammer”.^[5][6][1]

Semantic evolution

Besides the workman's hammer for beating and breaking, the glosses to Aldhelm use it for the hammer with which the master of a ship gave the stroke to the rowers.^[7] In poetry the kenning homera lāf names a sword, in Beowulf and the Battle of Brunanburh, and Beowulf has a sword hamere geþuren “forged by the hammer”.^[8][9] In Bald's Leechbook it forms part of the plant name hamor wyrt.^[10][6] Middendorff takes it in place-names such as Hamerdene in Hampshire in the sense “cliff, rock”, which the Old Norse word also has.^[11]

It continued as Middle English hamer, now English hammer.^[1]

Timeline

• s. x² – homera lafe “swords” in Riddle 5 and homere geþuren in Riddle 91 of the Exeter Book.^[5][6]
• s. x/xi – hamere geþuren and homera lafe in the Beowulf manuscript.^[12][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. a hammer for beating or breaking.^[7][3]
2. (glosses) the hammer of the master of a ship that gave the stroke to the rowers.^[7]
3. (place-names) a cliff or rock.^[11]

Word family

• sciphamor
• clodhamor
• handhamor

Descendants

• Middle English hamer (→ English hammer)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 206
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hamor
4. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 149
5. ^ 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. 223
6. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 505
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 507
9. ^ 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. hamer
10. ^ 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. 412
11. ^ a b Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 66
12. ^ 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. 344