An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Heim

by Friedrich Kluge

Heim, neuter, ‘home,’ from Middle High German and Old High German heim, neuter, ‘house, home, dwelling-place,’ compare Old Saxon hêm, ‘dwelling-place,’ Anglo-Saxon hâm. ‘home, dwelling-place, house,’ English home, Old Icelandic heimr, masculine, ‘dwelling, world,’ Gothic haims, feminine, ‘village.’ In the 17th century and in the first half of the 18th, the Modern High German word vanished from the literary language (the adverb heim only being still used), but was restored through the influence of English literature (see Halle, Elf). The meaning of the Gothic substantive is found in the remaining dialects only in names of places formed with -heim as the second component. In Gothic a more general meaning, ‘dwelling,’ is seen in the adjective anahaims, ‘present,’ afhaims, ‘absent’ (see Heimat). The assumption that ‘village’ is the earlier meaning of Heim is also supported by Lithuanian këmas, kaímas, ‘(peasant’s) farm’; Sanscrit kšêma-s, ‘secure residence,’ allied to the root kši, ‘to dwell securely, while away’ (kšitís, feminine, ‘dwelling, earth’), Old Slovenian po-čiti, ‘requiescere,’ po-kojĭ, ‘rest’; perhaps also Greek κώμη (for κῴμη), ‘village’?.