hummel

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*kem-“hornless; mutilated”
2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*hamalōną
3. Old English · inherited fromhamelian“to hamstring, mutilate”
4. Middle English · inherited fromhamelen“to maim, mutilate; to cut short”
5. English todayhummel

Probably from Middle English hamelen (“to maim, mutilate; to cut short”), from Old English hamelian (“to hamstring, mutilate”), from Proto-Germanic *hamalōną, *hamlōną (“to mutilate”), from Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“hornless; mutilated”). Cognate with Dutch hamel (“wether”), English hamble, Low German hommel, hummel (“an animal lacking horns”), humlich, dialectal hommlich (“lacking horns”), Bavarian humlet (“lacking horns”), German hammeln, hämmeln (“to geld”), Icelandic hamla (“to maim, mutilate”). OxfordDictionaries.com suggests that the “ear of grain with its awns removed” sense preceded the “animal without antlers or horns” sense.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from late 15th c. A stag that has failed to grow antlers; a cow that has not developed horns.