hem

Forms

hem (interjection)^[2]

Etymology

It is an onomatopoeic interjection, like German hm and French hum.^[3] Compare the stronger ehem.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it from Plautus,^[5] who has it in surprise, as in the Aulularia: hem, erumne ego aspicio meum?, “what's this, do I see my master?”^[2]

Semantic evolution

It expresses surprise or concern, in a good or a bad sense: Terence has hem, quid id est?, “what, what is that?”, and Sulpicius Rufus, in a letter to Cicero, hem! nos homunculi indignamur, “what! do we little men take it ill …?”.^[2][4] It also expresses grief, alas, as Terence's hem misera occidi, “ah, poor me, I'm done for”, and in Cicero.^[2][4] The grammarians count it among the interjections of feeling;^[3] Donatus explains it as the cry of someone hearing news, and with hui as a sneer at people one is angry with.^[3] Apuleius still uses it.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, in surprise.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, in surprise and in grief.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, in grief.^[2][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius.^[2][5]

Meanings

Interjection

1. Expressing surprise or concern: what? what's that? well, well!^[2][4][1]
2. Expressing grief: ah! alas!^[2][4]

Usage notes

Manuscripts and editions often confuse it with em and ēn.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de