Etymology

hain

H4A1I1N1

Today it means: To hedge or fence in; enclose; protect by hedging. Full definition →

Middle English *haynen ← Old Norse hegna ← Proto-Germanic *haginjaną
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromheyn
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*haginjaną“to hedge”
  3. Old Norse · derived fromhegna“to protect; defend”
  4. Middle English · inherited from*haynen
  5. English todayhain

From earlier hayne, from Middle English *haynen, *heynen, from Old Norse hegna (“to protect; defend”), from Proto-Germanic *haginjaną (“to hedge”), equivalent to hedge + -en. Cognate with Icelandic hegna (“to fence; confine; punish”), Swedish hägna (“to fence off; enclose; protect”), Danish hegne (“to enclose; fence in”). Related to hedge. The noun is from Middle English heyn.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.