hemp

Inherited from Middle English hemp, from Old English henep, from Proto-West Germanic *hanapi, from Proto-Germanic *hanapiz. Doublet of cannabis and canvas.

• IPA^(key): /hɛmp/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ɛmp

hemp (countable and uncountable, plural hemps)

1. A tall annual herb, Cannabis sativa, native to Asia.
   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 113:

     Among Turks, pills consisting of hemp buds, muscat nuts, saffron, and honey were a popular aphrodisiac.

2. Various products of this plant, including fibres and the drug cannabis.
3. (slang, historical) The gallows.
   • 1864, James Russell Lowell, Fireside Travels:

     A hundred and fifty years ago, Cotton Mather bewails the carnal attractions of the tavern and the training field, and tells of an old Indian, who imperfectly understood the English tongue but desperately mastered enough of it to express a desire for instant hemp rather than listen to any more ghostly consolations.

• cannabis
• marijuana
• ganja
• bhang
• THC

• meph

From Dutch hemd (“shirt”), from Middle Dutch hemde, hemede, from Old Dutch *hemithi, from Proto-Germanic *hamiþiją. Cognate with German Hemd, Yiddish העמד (hemd).

• IPA^(key): /ɦɛmp/

• Audio:

  (file)

hemp (plural hemde, diminutive hempie)

1. shirt
   • 2009, Christien Neser, Kondensmelk:

     Hy was haar hemp terwyl hy saggies fluit.

     He is washing her shirt while he's whistling softly.

• Note that the original -d- resurfaces in the plural hemde, but not in the diminutive.

• hanep, hempe, henep, henepe, henoppe, henpe, henppe

From Old English henep, hænep (“hemp”), from Proto-West Germanic *hanapi, from Proto-Germanic *hanapiz; cognate to Ancient Greek κάνναβις (kánnabis).

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛmp/, /ˈhɛn(ə)p/

hemp (uncountable)

1. Hemp (Cannabis sativa).
2. Hempen fibre or products made of it.

• hempen

• English: hemp
• Scots: hemp, hempt

• “hemp, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-1-7.