yelm

• yealm

From Middle English yelm, from Old English ġilm, ġelm (“handful”), from Proto-West Germanic *galmi, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“to flourish”).

• IPA^(key): /jɛlm/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɛlm

yelm (plural yelms)

1. (dialect) A bundle of straw for thatching.
   • 1952, Louis Francis Salzman, Building in England, page 224:

     The thatcher then laid the 'yelms' , or bunches of drawn straw, on the laths, beginning at the eaves and working up towards the ridge.

yelm (third-person singular simple present yelms, present participle yelming, simple past and past participle yelmed)

1. (dialect) To prepare straw for use as thatch.
   • 1952, Louis Francis Salzman, Building in England, page 224:

     The preparation of straw for thatch, which was known as 'yelming' , consisted in damping it and 'drawing' it with a thatching-fork, or great comb, so as to get the straws parallel.

• Emly, Lyme, elmy, lyme, myel-, ylem

Inherited from Old English ġilm, ġelm (“handful”), from Proto-West Germanic *galmi, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“to flourish”).

• IPA^(key): /jɛlm/

yelm (plural yelmes)

1. (hapax) yelm, yealm (sheaf of straw for thatching)

• English: yelm, yealm

• “yelm, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.