hem

A sound uttered in imitation of clearing the throat (onomatopoeia)

• IPA^(key): /hɛm/
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /hɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛm
• Homophone: him (pin-pen merger)

hem

1. Used to fill in the gap of a pause with a vocalized sound.

hem (plural hems)

1. An utterance or sound of the voice like "hem", often indicative of hesitation or doubt, sometimes used to call attention.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Spectator

     his morning hems

hem (third-person singular simple present hems, present participle hemming, simple past and past participle hemmed)

1. To make the sound expressed by the word hem; to hesitate in speaking.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     Hem, and stroke thy beard.

• hem and haw

• ahem
• haw

From Middle English hem, hemm, in turn from Old English hemm and related to Middle High German hemmen (“to hem in”), Old Norse hemja (“to hem in, restrain”). The Proto-Indo-European root gave rise also to Armenian քամել (kʿamel, “to press, wring”) and Russian ком (kom, “lump”).

The verb is from Middle English hemmen, from Old English *hemman, from Proto-Germanic *hamjaną, or alternatively derived from the noun.

• IPA^(key): /hɛm/
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /hɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛm
• Homophone: him (pin-pen merger)

A stitched hem.

Drawing of a sheet metal hem.

hem (plural hems)

1. (sewing) The border of an article of clothing doubled back and stitched together to finish the edge and prevent it from fraying.
2. A rim or margin of something.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     hem of the sea

3. In sheet metal design, a rim or edge folded back on itself to create a smooth edge and to increase strength or rigidity.

• touch the hem of someone's garment
• hem in

hem (third-person singular simple present hems, present participle hemming, simple past and past participle hemmed)

1. (intransitive) (in sewing) To make a hem.
2. (transitive): To put hem on an article of clothing, to edge or put a border on something.
3. (transitive): To surround something or someone in a confining way.

• hemmer

From Middle English hem, from Old English heom (“them”, dative), originally a dative plural form but in Middle English coming to serve as an accusative plural as well. More at 'em.

hem

1. Obsolete form of 'em.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Caxton

     And wente to the kinge and to the queene, and said to hem with a glad cheer.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Caxton

     For eyther of hem mayntened.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Nisbet, M

     He prayis hem to lyue releg[ious] lyff[is] and to luk waraly for the cummyng of the lord.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Florio

     ‘What thinke you of this English, tel me I pray you.’ ‘It is a language that wyl do you good in England but passe Dover, it is woorth nothing.’ ‘Is it not used then in other countreyes?’ ‘No sir, with whom wyl you that they speake?’ ‘With English marchants.’ ‘English marchantes, when they are out of England, it liketh hem not, and they doo not speake it.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Spenser

     Tho to the greene wood they speeden hem all.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Ben Jonson

     Except we make hem such.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Marston

     They go forth on Holydays and gather hem by the seashore.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Andrew Marvell

     The mayor and alderman or any six of hem.

• Meh, meh

• hemi

From English him.

hem

1. Third person singular pronoun:
   1. he; she
   2. him; her
   3. his; her
   4. his; hers

hem

1. first-person plural present indicative form of haver

From Middle Dutch hem, from Old Dutch himo, from Proto-Germanic *himmai.

• IPA^(key): /ɦɛm/

• Audio

  (file)

hem

1. (personal) Third-person singular, masculine, objective: him.

   Stuur dat maar naar hem.

   Send that to him.

2. (personal) The tagger in a game of tag: it.

• IPA^(key): /hɛːm/
• Rhymes: -ɛːm

hem n (genitive singular hems, nominative plural hem)

1. thin layer of ice

   Synonym: skæni

hem (weak)

1. first-person singular present indicative of hemja
2. second-person singular imperative of hemja

hem

1. and

• herwiha
• û

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /hem/, [hẽ]

hem

1. eh?, well well! (expressing surprise)

• ehem

• hem in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• hem in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

From Old Dutch himo, from Proto-Germanic *himmai.

hem

1. accusative and dative of hi
2. dative of het

From Old Dutch hin, from Proto-Germanic *himaz.

hem

1. accusative and dative of si (“they”)

• heme, hemme, heom, heon, hoem, hom, home, huem, hum, ham, hame, him, hym, em, am, ȝam

From Old English heom, from Proto-Germanic *himaz, masculine and neuter dative plural of *hiz.

hem (nominative he)

1. Third-person plural accusative pronoun: them.
   • 14th c. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. General Prologue: 9–11.

     And smale foweles maken melodye,

     That slepen al the nyght with open eye-

     (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);

     And many little birds make melody

     That sleep through all the night with open eye

     (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)

   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41

     And with alle these men I was ofte homli and I comownede with hem long tyme and fele, and so bifore alle othir men I chees wilfulli to be enformed bi hem and of hem, and speciali of Wiclef himsilf, as of the moost vertuous and goodlich wise man that I herde of owhere either knew.

2. (reflexive) themselves.

• English: 'em, hem
• Yola: aam

• þem

• “hem, (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 June 2018.

hem

1. Alternative form of him

• “him, (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 6 May 2018.

hem

1. imperative of hemme

From Proto-Germanic *haimaz.

hēm ?

1. home, house
2. hamlet

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Middle Dutch: hêem
  • Dutch: heem

• “hēm”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

• hemi

From English him

hem

1. he/she/it (third-person singular pronoun)
   • 1988, Geoffrey Miles White, Bikfala faet: olketa Solomon Aelanda rimembarem Wol Wo Tu‎, page 75:

     Bihaen hemi finisim skul blong hem, hemi go minista long sios long ples blong hem long 'Areo.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

hem

1. Rare form of hein.

From Old Norse heim < heimr, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz.

• IPA^(key): /hɛm/

• audio

  (file)

hem

1. home; to one's home

   Det är dags att gå hem.

   It is time to go home.

hem n

1. a home; one's dwelling place, as in a house or a more general geographical place; the abiding place of the affections.
2. a home; an institution

• hem in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)

Borrowing from Persian هم‎ (ham).

• IPA^(key): /hem/

hem

1. and also

hem

1. both; and

   Hem bu hem şu ― Both this one and that one