hem
Pronunciation
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
- Expressing surprise or concern: what? what's that? well, well![2][4][1]
- Expressing grief: ah! alas![2][4]
Usage notes
Manuscripts and editions often confuse it with em and ēn.[4][3]
References
- ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de