hiems

Forms

hiems f (genitive hiemis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled hiemps;^[2][3] Cato has a nominative hiemis.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *χiem- (“winter”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéyōm (“winter”).^[4][1] Cognate with Avestan ziiā̊ (“winter”), Sanskrit हिम (himá, “cold, frost”), Ancient Greek χιών (khiṓn, “snow”), Ancient Greek χεῖμα (kheîma, “winter”), Hittite gimm- (“winter”), Old Irish gaim (“winter”) and Lithuanian žiemà (“winter”).^[4][2][1] De Vaan takes it to be an old m-stem whose root grade varied: Latin, like Celtic, generalised the form of the accusative, but kept another grade in hībernus (“of winter”), from ⟨*heimrinos⟩, and the bare root in bīmus (“two years old”) and trīmus (“three years old”), literally “of two, three winters”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] Köbler from Ennius,^[5] whose Annals say that autumn follows summer and after it comes sharp winter.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is winter and winter weather, the rainy season,^[2][3] and by transfer extreme cold, as Ovid's deadly chill that slowly enters the breast.^[2] Varro uses it of the near-endless winters of the north.^[2] A winter can mark a year, as in Accius' “nine winters”, and it is also rough weather or a storm, as Accius' storms of whirlwinds.^[2][1]

Church Latin keeps it as “winter”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – First recorded in Plautus.^[4][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of winter following autumn.^[2][5]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of nine winters and of storms.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of northern winters.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a deadly chill.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Winter; winter weather.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Extreme cold, chill.^[2]
3. A winter as marking a year.^[2]
4. Rough weather, storm, tempest.^[2][1]

Word family

• bīmus
• hībernus
• hiemālis
• hiemō
• quadrīmus
• trīmus

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 m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson