helm
noun
- part of boat from which steering mechanism is operated
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L331906 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /hɛlm/
name
Etymology: Two main origins: * An English topographic surname for someone who lived by or worked at a temporary shelter for animals, from Middle English helm (“a helmet; a protection”). * Borrowed from German Helm (“a helmet”), metonymic occupational surname for a maker of helmets.
- A surname.
- A placename, from the surname:
- A placename, from the surname:
- A placename, from the surname:
noun
Etymology: The noun is possibly: * a variant of haulm; or * from its etymon Middle English halm, helm, Early Middle English healm (“straw, stubble; stalk (?); handle of a tool or weapon”) [and other forms], from Old English healm (“stalk of a grass or plant; hay, straw, stubble”) or an unattested variant *helm, from Proto-Germanic *helmaz (see Proto-West Germanic *helm) or *halmaz (“stalk of a grass or plant; hay, straw”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelh₂- (“to prick, stab, stick”). The verb is either derived from the noun, or is possibly a variant of yelm. Cognates Dutch helm (“haulm”); helm, hellem, hellim (“straw”) (dialectal) Low German helm (“haulm”) (hallem (Heligoland), halm (Holstein))
- A stalk of corn, or (uncountable) stalks of corn collectively (that is, straw), especially when bundled together or laid out straight to be used for thatching roofs.
- Alternative form of haulm (“the stems of various cultivated plants, left after harvesting the crop, which are used as animal food or litter, or for thatching”).
“The sheriff, John Griffith, had prepared green wood to burn him; but one master John Pikes, pitying the man, caused divers to go with him to Ridland, half a mile off, who brought good store of helme-sheaves, which indeed made good dispatch with little pain, in comparison to that he should have suffered with the green wood.”
- Synonym of bentgrass (“any of numerous reedy grass species of the genus Agrostis”)
“The Italians, and Spaniards, call it Sparto, and the ſecond ſort Albardi, The Dutch Halm. And vve in Engliſh, Helme, and Matvveede, but the people all along the Coaſts of Norfolke and Suffolke, call it Marram, and may be called Sea Ruſhes as vvell.”
verb
Etymology: The noun is possibly: * a variant of haulm; or * from its etymon Middle English halm, helm, Early Middle English healm (“straw, stubble; stalk (?); handle of a tool or weapon”) [and other forms], from Old English healm (“stalk of a grass or plant; hay, straw, stubble”) or an unattested variant *helm, from Proto-Germanic *helmaz (see Proto-West Germanic *helm) or *halmaz (“stalk of a grass or plant; hay, straw”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelh₂- (“to prick, stab, stick”). The verb is either derived from the noun, or is possibly a variant of yelm. Cognates Dutch helm (“haulm”); helm, hellem, hellim (“straw”) (dialectal) Low German helm (“haulm”) (hallem (Heligoland), halm (Holstein))
- To lay out (stalks of corn, or straw) straight to be used for thatching roofs; to yelm.