Meanings
alternative Hæmony
- rareuncountableA magical plant mentioned by John Milton, said to be good against enchantments.
It is not agreed whether Milton’s Hæmony is a real or poetical plant.
1809, Henry John Todd, The Poetical Works of John Milton, page 3422 more examples
He call’d it Hæmony, and gave it me / And bad me keepe it as of ſoveraine uſe / Gainſt all inchantments, mildew blaſt, or damp / Or gaſtly furies apparition; / […]
Comus
1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 20, lines 638–641In a recent study of Thyris' magical herb in Comus, John M. Steadman concludes that “haemony means knowledge” from Greek haimon “skillful.”
1970, Sacvan Bercovitch, “Milton's ‘Haemony’: Knowledge and Belief”, in Huntington Library Quarterly, page 351
Origin
- Ancient Greekαἵμων“skillful”
- Ancient Greekαἷμα“blood”
- LatinHaemonia“Thessaly”
- Englishhaemony
Coined by John Milton for the play Comus around 1634 (see quotation below). Various scholars suggest that the word comes from a classical source such as Latin Haemonia (“Thessaly”, a place associated with magic), Ancient Greek αἷμα (haîma, “blood”), or Ancient Greek αἵμων (haímōn, “skillful”).
More words from Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
haemony. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haemony
“haemony.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haemony. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “haemony,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haemony.
Source: haemony on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.