Etymologically
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heaven

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈhev.ən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English heven,[2][3] inherited from Old English heofon (“the sky, firmament; the home of God”),[4][2][5] probably from Proto-Germanic *hibin-, a dissimilation of *himin-,[4][2] also the source of Old Norse himinn and Gothic himins and, with an l suffix, Old Frisian himul, Dutch hemel and German Himmel.[4][2][5] Its ultimate origin is uncertain and disputed.[4][5][6] It perhaps means “a covering”, from Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“to cover”),[4][2][3] or, as Watkins derives it, from *ak- “sharp”, through *akman- “stone”, the “stony vault of heaven”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sky, firmament: about 725, in Beowulf, according to Barnhart.[2] The home of God is from about 1000.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The plural heavens, as in Biblical language, translated the Hebrew plural shamayim;[4][7] its use for the sky probably also reflects the Ptolemaic picture of space as many spheres,[4] each of which was a heaven in earlier cosmography, from 1340.[7] “A heavenly place, a state of bliss” is from the late 14th century,[4][5] and seventh heaven, from the highest of the seven heavens of some Jewish and Muslim teaching, came to mean “ecstatically happy” in the late 18th century.[6] In 17th- and 18th-century verse it was regularly one syllable.[4] Heavenward is from about 1250[2] and heaven-sent from the 1640s.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – the sky.[2]
  • c. 1000 – the abode of God.[2][7]
  • c. 1250 – heavenward.[2]
  • 1340 – a celestial sphere.[7]
  • late 14th century – a state of bliss.[4]
  • 1640s – heaven-sent.[4]
  • late 18th century – seventh heaven.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. In many religions, the dwelling place of God, the angels and the souls of the saved.
  2. A state of eternal communion with God; everlasting bliss.
  3. often heavens: the sky, as seen from the earth; the firmament.
  4. A place or condition of great happiness.
  5. Heaven: God, as in exclamations: Heaven knows.

Word family

  • heavenless
  • heaven-born
  • heavenly
  • heaven-sent
  • heavenward
  • heavenwards
  • midheaven
  • blue heaven
  • heavens

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press