𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍃

Forms

𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍃 (haims), a feminine noun, an i-stem in the singular and an ō-stem in the plural; the nominative singular is not recorded.^[1][2][3] The Wulfila project records 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍉𐍃 (haimos, five times), 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼 (haim, four times), 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍉 (haimo, twice), 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍉𐌼 (haimom, twice) and 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌹 (haimai, once).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“home, village”),^[5][6] a masculine a-stem in Proto-Germanic, from which the Gothic gender and inflection differ.^[5] The cognates are Old Norse heimr (“abode, world”), Old English hām, Old Frisian hām, Old Saxon hēm and Old High German heim.^[6][7] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos.^[5] Kroonen derives it from the root *kei- (“to lie”), as in Ancient Greek κεῖμαι (keîmai, “to lie”), and compares κοιμάω (koimáō, “to put to sleep”) and Old Irish cóim (“dear”).^[6] Lehmann calls the derivation from "to lie" the older view.^[8] The Baltic words for "village", Lithuanian káimas and Old Prussian caymis, are borrowings from Germanic for Kroonen, as Grienberger and Uhlenbeck had suspected.^[6][7][9] Feist rejects this, Orel counts the Lithuanian word among the related words, and Lehmann thinks it probably unrelated.^[7][10][8]

Attestation

The word occurs fourteen times by the Wulfila project's count and Köbler's, all in the Gospels and all in manuscript CA: once in Matthew, once in John, eight times in Luke and four times in Mark.^[4][2] The first in canonical order is Matthew 9:35.^[4] It renders Ancient Greek κώμη (kṓmē) eleven times, and once each κωμόπολις (kōmópolis), ἀγρός (agrós) and πόλις (pólis).^[11] John 11:1 reads us haimai Marjins jah Marþins swistrs izos, "from the village of Mary and her sister Martha".^[12]

Meanings

1. A village, for Greek κώμη.^[1][13][2]
2. In the plural, the country, rural towns, opposed to baurgs "town" (for Greek ἀγροί).^[1][13]

Word family

• 𐌰𐍆𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐌴𐌹𐍃 (afhaimeis)
• 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐌴𐌹𐍃 (anahaimeis)
• 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍉𐌸𐌻𐌹 (haimōþli)

References

1. ^ a b c Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. haims
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. haims 1
3. ^ Braune, Wilhelm; Heidermanns, Frank (2004), Gotische Grammatik, mit Lesestücken und Wörterverzeichnis, 20th ed., Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte A 1, Tübingen: Niemeyer, p. 280
4. ^ a b c De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be
5. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍃
6. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 201
7. ^ a b c Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. haims
8. ^ a b Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. *haims
9. ^ Uhlenbeck, C. C. (1905), Bemerkungen zum gotischen Wortschatz, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 30, 252ff.
10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 152
11. ^ Haug, Dag T. T. et al., PROIEL Treebank: The Gothic Bible (gothic-nt), 2023 release, Pragmatic Resources in Old Indo-European Languages, University of Oslo
12. ^ De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be, p. Jn 11:1
13. ^ a b Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 76