hyem

English

Alternative forms

• heyem (Northern English dialect)
• hjem (Geordie)
• yem (Geordie)

Etymology

From Northern Middle English hame, from Old English hām, from Proto-West Germanic *haim, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz. Cognate with German Heim, Swedish hem, Dutch heem, heim- and West Frisian hiem. Note that this pronunciation is not derived from Old Norse, as is sometimes assumed on the basis of Danish and Norwegian hjem - the pronunciation in Geordie is directly derivable from the Old English form by regular rules. Compare traditional styen (“stone”) [stjɛn] from stān, or clem (“stone, cloam”) [klɛm] from clām. It can also be found in some other northern dialects like Yorkshire.

Adverb

hyem (not comparable)

1. (Northumbria) home
   • [19th c.] 1993, Ned Corvan, “Yer Gannin to be a Keelman,” in Visions of the People, Patrick Joyce [1]

     Ye’ll be comin’ hyem at neets, with yor fyece all ower black,

     And ye’ll lie an snore aside the fire, and never gis yor crack, [...]

   • 1848, Sinks of London Laid Open‎^[2]:

     “He had just come in,” he said, “to see if his mate was come hyem yet; but as he had not, he thought he could guess right weel where he wad be, and wad just step o’er to Brown’s (the gin-shop) and see.”

   • 1985, David Wright tr. Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales [3]

     And so Aah’s cum, and also brought Alan,

     To grind wor corn, and bring it hyem again;

     Aah begs ye de the job fast as ye can.

Related terms

• home (Standard English)
• hyim (South Scots)

References

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “HYEM”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “hyem”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[4], archived from the original on 2024-09-05.
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[5]
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4