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hiemo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word hiemo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC, Cicero
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*ǵʰéyōm)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin hiems
Latin hiemo

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈhi.ɛ.moː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈiː.e.mo][1]

Forms

hiemō (present infinitive hiemāre, perfect active hiemāvī, supine hiemātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Latin hiems (“winter”).[2][3][1] The noun hiems goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéyōm (“winter”).[4][1] Cognate with Sanskrit हिम (himá-, “cold, frost”), Hittite gimm- (“winter”) and Old Irish gaim (“winter”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is Cicero's letter to Atticus: “I hope you are wintering pleasantly there”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to pass the winter, and especially of troops to be in winter quarters;[2][5] Cicero also uses it of pirates who wintered in a place every year.[2][5] Of the weather and the sea it is to be wintry or stormy, as Horace's black stormy sea.[2] Pliny the Elder uses it transitively of a lake made wintry by the autumn star.[2]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of wintering and of pirates' winter quarters.[2][5][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a stormy sea.[2][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a lake made wintry.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pass the winter; of troops, to be in winter quarters.[2][5][1]
  2. To be wintry or stormy.[2][1]
  3. To make wintry; to freeze.[2][1]

Word family

  • hiemātiō
  • perhiemō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Hiemo.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/hiemo. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·