hiems

Latin

Alternative forms

• hiemps (usual but advised against by analogist grammarians)
• hyems

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *hiom-, from earlier *xiom- (to differentiate it from a later form *hiom- if the shift */x/ > */h/ in the Italic languages already happened during late Proto-Italic), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéyōm.

Cognate with Ancient Greek χιών (khiṓn, “snow”), χεῖμα (kheîma, “snow”), χειμών (kheimṓn, “snow”), Persian زمستان (zemestân), Albanian dimër, Welsh gaeaf, Sanskrit हिम (himá), Hittite 𒄀𒈠𒀭 (gi-ma-an /⁠giman⁠/), Armenian ձմեռ (jmeṙ), and Proto-Slavic *zima.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈhi.emps/, [ˈhiɛmps̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ems/, [ˈiːems]
• Note the epenthesis of the homorganic stop [p] required to maintain the place of articulation of the stem-final /m/, as also in sūmpsī, temptō etc.

Noun

hiems in Austria

hiems f (genitive hiemis); third declension

1. winter
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 3.235–236:

     quid, quod hiems adoperta gelū tunc dēnique cēdit, et pereunt lāpsae sōle tepente nivēs

     What of the fact that then frost-covered winter finally gives way, and the snows perish, melted in the warming sun; [...]. (trans. Anne and Peter Wiseman, 2011)

2. storm, stormy weather, tempest

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	hiems	hiemēs
Genitive	hiemis	hiemum
Dative	hiemī	hiemibus
Accusative	hiemem	hiemēs
Ablative	hieme	hiemibus
Vocative	hiems	hiemēs

Synonyms

• hībernum

Derived terms

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

Further reading

• “hiems”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “hiems”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• hiems in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• hiems in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • in the height of summer, depth of winter: summa aestate, hieme
    
  • winter is at hand: hiems subest