hemp
/hɛmp/ noun, proper noun
Forms hemps
- noun A tall annual herb, Cannabis sativa, native to Asia.
- noun Various products of this plant, including fibres and the drug cannabis.
- noun (slang, historical) The gallows.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
HAEMP cannabis hangman's rope hangman's halter halter hempen necktie
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English hemp, from Old English henep, from Proto-West Germanic *hanapi, from Proto-Germanic *hanapiz. Doublet of cannabis and canvas.
* As a German surname, pet form of the old Germanic name Hembrecht, composed of *haim (“home”) and *berht (“bright”).
* As an English surname, variant of Hamp.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A plant of the genus Cannabis (C. sativa), the fibrous skin or bark of which is used for making cloth and cordage. The name is also applied to various other plants yielding fiber.
- noun The fiber of the skin or rind of the plant, prepared for spinning.
Etymology [OE. hemp, AS. henep, hænep; akin to D. hennep, OHG. hanaf, G. hanf, Icel. hampr, Dan. hamp, Sw. hampa, L. cannabis, cannabum, Gr. conoplia, Skr. a; all prob. borrowed from some other language at an early time. Cf. Cannabine, Canvas.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hemp”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details