teem

teem¹ to abound, swarm

Etymology

The verb meaning to abound is inherited from Middle English temen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English tīeman (“to bring forth, beget”) in West Saxon and tēman in Mercian,^[3][5][6] with the further spellings tīman, tȳman and tǣman.^[2][7] The OED explains the two main forms as the West Saxon and non-West Saxon results of i-mutation.^[8] The Old English verb is formed from tēam (“offspring, family”), the ancestor of team,^[6][9][10] or from the Germanic base of that noun.^[8] It goes back to Proto-Germanic *taumijaną, from *taumaz (“bridle”),^[1][5] and has a counterpart in Old High German zoumen (“to bridle”).^[11] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *deuk- (“to lead”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bring forth offspring: about 1000,^[6] in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies;^[8] Dictionary.com dates the word before 900.^[12] The oldest record of any sense in the OED is a legal one in the Laws of Ine: to name the person from whom a disputed thing had been obtained.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the verb also meant to appeal to someone as a witness or warrantor,^[8][11] and in early Middle English, from Laȝamon's Brut on, to be attached to someone in allegiance or kinship, or to make one's way to a place; those uses were gone by about 1540.^[8] The Ormulum spells it tæmenn, of having children,^[2] and the sense "bear offspring" survived into the 19th century.^[8] The modern sense, to be full of or to swarm, appears in the 1590s,^[8][3][6] on the notion of being as full as if ready to give birth.^[3] Etymonline thinks it was influenced by or confused with teem²,^[3] and the OED suspects influence in the opposite direction on the rain sense of that verb.^[8] Johnson (1755) gives "to bring forth" and quotes Milton's earth opening her womb.^[13] In the north of England a teeming woman was still one apt to bear children, and the teeming-time was the time of giving birth.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – to bear offspring, bring forth young.^[8][6]
• c. 1175 – of people, to have children, as tæmenn in the Ormulum.^[2]
• c. 1275 – to be attached to someone in allegiance, to go to a place (obsolete by about 1540).^[8]
• 1597 – to be vibrantly full, to swarm, in Shakespeare's Richard II.^[8] Barnhart dates the play 1593.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be very full of living things or activity; to swarm: The pond teemed with tadpoles.^[15][7][8]
2. To be present in great numbers; to abound: Questions teemed in her mind.^[15][8]
3. (archaic) To bring forth or produce.^[7][15][13]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1875) To bear offspring; to become pregnant.^[7][8]

Word family

• teemer
• teeming
• teemingly
• teemingness
• teemful

teem² to pour

Etymology

The verb meaning to pour is inherited from Middle English temen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old Norse tœma (“to empty”),^{[7][16][9][17]} from tómr (“empty”).^[16][9][3] The OED and Barnhart speak of an early Scandinavian source,^[8][6] comparing Swedish tömma and Danish tømme,^[8] and Barnhart calls the adjective of unknown origin.^[6] The adjective is cognate with tōm (“empty, free from”) and Old High German zuomīg.^[7][3][6] Wiktionary reconstructs the verb as Proto-Germanic *tōmijaną.^[1] In Irish English, especially in the form taom, the word was probably influenced by Irish taom (“to empty of water, to pour off”).^[8] The Norse adjective also lies behind toom.^[8][16][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To empty or drain a body of water: before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi, of lakes.^[6][8][2] A surname Temelathe of 1332 may also contain the verb.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first idea was to empty a vessel, which led to pouring out or spilling its contents.^[3] The MED also records emptying saddles, that is, unhorsing riders, about 1440.^[2][8] Later use is mostly regional: the OED calls the transitive senses chiefly Scottish, Irish and northern English.^[8] Johnson (1755) called it "a low word", noted that Skinner derived it from Danish tommen, said that the Scots retained it, and quoted Swift's Directions to the Butler.^[13] The English Dialect Dictionary has it in Scotland, Ireland and England for pouring liquid from one vessel to another, as in the Northern Teem out the tea, hinny.^[14] From 1673, in John Ray's collection of northern words, it meant to pour something into something, and later became the metallurgical term for pouring molten steel into a mould.^[8] The sense most people now know, of rain falling heavily, is recorded from 1753 in the OED^[8] but only from 1828 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[6][3] The OED thinks that this sense was perhaps reinforced by association with teem¹.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1325 – to empty, drain.^[6][8]
• c. 1440 – to pour out, unload; to empty saddles of riders.^[8][2] Etymonline dates pour out to the early 15th century.^[3]
• before 1642 – intransitive, in English regional use, to pour.^[8]
• 1673 – to pour something in or into, later molten steel into a mould.^[8]
• 1753 – of rain, to pour, fall heavily.^[8] Barnhart and Etymonline have it from 1828.^[6][3]
• 1793 – noun, a heavy downpour.^[8]
• 1828 – to drain the water from boiled potatoes, chiefly in Irish English.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of rain, to pour down heavily: It teemed all through the match.^[7][8]
2. (metallurgy) To pour molten steel into a mould.^[7][8][16]
3. (Scotland, Ireland and northern England) To empty a vessel or pour out its contents.^[8][16][14]
4. (Irish English) To drain the water from boiled potatoes and the like.^[8]

Noun

1. A heavy downpour.^[8]