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Etymology and origin of the English word hem

Pronunciation

hem1 edge of cloth

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1000 Ælfric's Glossary
Inherited from
Old English hem via Middle English

Etymology

The edge of cloth is inherited from Middle English hem, also hemme,[2][3] inherited from Old English hem, also hemm,[4][5][6] recorded in a single Old English vocabulary, Ælfric's Glossary, where it glosses Latin limbus (“border”).[4][7][6] The OED notes that it is not found in the other older Germanic languages, though there is North Frisian heam (“hem, edge, border”), and takes it as apparently from the same root as hamm (“enclosure”), with a basic sense "border".[4][8][5] Collins and the Shorter Oxford compare Old Frisian hemme (“enclosed land”),[9][10][11] and Ayto takes "edge, border" as the underlying meaning.[11] Wiktionary traces it through Proto-West Germanic *hammjan to Proto-Germanic *hamjaną,[1] the verb behind Old Norse hemja (“to bridle, curb”), Swedish hämma (“to stop, restrain”), hemma (“to hinder”) and German hemmen (“to hem in, stop, hinder”).[12][5][7][13] Etymonline and Barnhart go back to Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“to compress”),[12][7][13] the source also of Armenian քամել (kamel, “to press, squeeze”), Lithuanian kamuoti (“to press together”) and Russian ком (kom, “lump, clod”).[12][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The border of a piece of cloth or a garment: about 1000, in Ælfric's Glossary,[7][4][6] where in earlier times the word also covered a fringe or other trimming.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English hem was also the skirt of a tunic or gown (about 1275 to 1500),[4] and the edge, rim or margin of anything, a sense the OED records from about 1200 to 1878;[4][2] in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Devon dialect it was still the edge of a field or plot of ground.[14] Following Matthew 23:5, the hem could stand for pride or show, as when Capgrave wrote in 1451 that the Pharisees "magnified her owne hemmys".[2][12] The narrower sense, a border made by turning in the edge and sewing it down, is first recorded in 1665, in Hooke's Micrographia.[4][8] Technical uses followed: a socket at the head of a still (1559–1712), the partition between hearth and fireplace in a furnace (1693), and the outer edge of a millstone (1802).[4][14] The verb, formed from the noun, is implied in hemming about 1340 and recorded as hemmen, to give a border, about 1386 by Barnhart;[7] the OED's first record is from about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.[4] Etymonline notes the surname Hemmer from about 1300.[12] From 1530 it meant to turn in and sew down an edge,[4] and in the 1530s it came to mean to shut in or confine, usually as hem in;[4][7][12] the OED notes that this sense is usually taken to be the same word, though this is not certain.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – the border of a piece of cloth.[7][6]
  • c. 1200 – the edge or margin of anything (obsolete by 1878).[4]
  • c. 1340 – verb, implied in hemming.[7]
  • c. 1440 – verb, to edge or border a garment.[4]
  • 1530 – verb, to turn in and sew down the edge of fabric.[4]
  • 1538 – hem in, to shut in, confine.[7][12]
  • 1665 – a border made by folding over the edge and sewing it.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An edge of cloth made by folding the raw edge under and stitching it down: She took up the hem of her skirt.[9][3]
  2. A hemline.[9]
  3. A folded-back edge on an article of sheet metal, plastic or leather.[3]

Verb

  1. To finish cloth or a garment with a hem.[9][3]
  2. To surround and confine, usually with in, around or about: The village was hemmed in by mountains.[9][3]

Word family

  • hemmer
  • hemline
  • hemstitch
  • rehem

hem2 throat-clearing sound

Confidence
Established
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1470 before 1470, Malory's Morte d'Arthur

Etymology

The throat-clearing sound is imitative.[4][3][10][12][8] The OED compares hmm, ahem and hum,[4] and Weekley haw.[15] Barnhart takes the interjection as probably from the verb, which he finds first, in the verbal noun hemynge in Malory before 1470,[7] while the OED derives the verb from the interjection.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make the sound hem, give a short cough as a signal, clear the throat or hesitate in speech: 1470–85, in Malory's Morte d'Arthur,[4][7] late 15th century in Etymonline.[12] The interjection is first recorded about 1525, in Rastell's New Commodye,[4] and in 1526 in Skelton's Magnificence according to Barnhart.[7]

Semantic evolution

A noun, the sound itself, appears in 1547, in Andrew Borde.[4][10] The verb was combined with other hesitation words: hem and hawk is attested from the 1570s by Etymonline, 1588 in the OED,[12][4] and hem and haw from 1786,[7][12] haw for hesitation being recorded from 1632.[7] A transitive use, to read something out with frequent hems, ran from 1553 to 1693, and Shakespeare used hem for clearing something away with a cough in As You Like It.[4] Merriam-Webster marks hem and haw as chiefly American, the British form being hum and haw.[3]

Timeline

  • 1470 – verb, to make a short cough, clear the throat or hesitate.[4][7]
  • c. 1525 – interjection.[4]
  • 1547 – noun, a sound like a slight cough.[4]
  • 1588 – hem and hawk.[4]
  • 1786 – hem and haw, to hesitate.[7][12]

Meanings

Interjection

  1. A sound like a slight cough or a clearing of the throat, used to attract attention or show doubt or hesitation.[10][4][3]

Noun

  1. An utterance of this sound.[3][10]

Verb

  1. To make this sound.[3][10]
  2. hem and haw: to hesitate or avoid giving a clear answer: He hemmed and hawed when asked about the money.[3][10]

Usage notes

In Middle English hem was also the usual form of the pronoun "them", from Old English heom;[2][10] Merriam-Webster still records it as dialectal.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Hem.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/hem. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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