hemp

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hemp, also hempe,^[2][3] inherited from Old English hænep, also henep,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} inherited from Proto-Germanic *hanapiz.^[5][6][9] It is cognate with Old Saxon hanap, Dutch hennep, Old High German hanaf, German Hanf, Old Norse hampr, Swedish hampa and Danish hamp.^{[4][5][10][3]} The Germanic word is related to Ancient Greek κάνναβις (kánnabis), the source of Latin cannabis,^[4][8][10] and most dictionaries take it as a very early Germanic borrowing from the same foreign source as the Greek word,^[5][3][11] probably Scythian according to Etymonline, Klein and Weekley.^[5][10][11] Merriam-Webster thinks that all these words are probably of non-Indo-European origin.^[2] Weekley stresses that the Germanic forms were not borrowed from the Latin word but taken independently from a common source,^[11] while the Bosworth–Toller dictionary quotes the older view of Grimm and Kuhn, who derived the Germanic word from the Latin one.^[7] Ayto points out that canvas, which was first made from hemp, ultimately goes back to the same source.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The hemp plant, Cannabis sativa: Old English, in a glossary printed by Wright and Wülcker;^[4] Bosworth–Toller also cites the Old English Herbarium and the leechdoms.^[7] Barnhart dates the Old English word to before 1000.^[12][3]

Semantic evolution

The name of the plant was extended to the fibre made from it about 1300, in Havelok the Dane.^[4][5][3] Because ropes were made of it, hemp came to stand for the hangman's rope from 1532, in Thomas More;^[4][13] the slang verb to hemp, to hang, is recorded from before 1658,^[4][13] and in Scots and northern English dialect hemp-string was both a halter and a verb, to hang.^[14] The narcotic drug made from Indian hemp is called hemp from 1870,^[4][5] and Etymonline dates the slang sense "marijuana" to the 1940s.^[5] From 1597 the word was also applied, with a qualifying word, to many other plants that give a useful fibre.^[4] Johnson (1755) described it as a fibrous plant from which coarse linen and ropes were made, grown in the fens of Lincolnshire.^[15] Dialect compounds such as hemp-croft, hemp-garth and hemp-land named the small plots where families grew it.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1000 – Old English hænep, the hemp plant.^[3][4]
• c. 1300 – the fibre of the plant, used for rope and cloth.^[4][5]
• 1532 – the hangman's rope.^[4]
• 1597 – with a qualifying word, other plants yielding fibre.^[4]
• before 1658 – verb, to hang.^[4]
• 1870 – the narcotic drug obtained from Indian hemp.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tall Asian herb, Cannabis sativa, grown for its tough fibre and its seeds; cannabis.^[2][16][4]
2. The fibre of this plant, used to make rope, canvas and coarse cloth.^[16][2][4]
3. A narcotic drug, such as marijuana or hashish, obtained from the plant.^[2][16][4]
4. The fibre of other plants, such as jute or abaca, or such a plant itself, usually with a qualifying word: sisal hemp.^[2][4]

Word family

• hemplike
• hempen
• hempseed
• hempy
• bowstring hemp
• hemp nettle
• Madras hemp
• sann hemp

Related words

• cannabis
• canvas
• canvass

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
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. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins