hemp
pronunciation
How to pronounce hemp in British English:
UK [hemp]
How to pronounce hemp in American English:
US [hemp]
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- Noun:
- a plant fiber
- any plant of the genus Cannabis; a coarse bushy annual with palmate leaves and clusters of small green flowers; yields tough fibers and narcotic drugs
- a rope that is used by a hangman to execute persons who have been condemned to death by hanging
Word Origin
- hemp
- hemp: [OE] Hemp is ultimately the same word as cannabis (as, bizarrely, is canvas, which was originally made from hemp). Both go back to a common ancestor which produced Persian kanab, Russian konóplya, Greek kánnabis (source of English cannabis), and a prehistoric Germanic *khanipiz or *khanapiz. From the latter are descended German hanf, Dutch hennep, Swedish hampa, Danish hamp, and English hemp.=> cannabis
- hemp (n.)
- Old English hænep "hemp, cannabis sativa," from Proto-Germanic *hanapiz (cognates: Old Saxon hanap, Old Norse hampr, Old High German hanaf, German Hanf), probably a very early Germanic borrowing of the same Scythian word that became Greek kannabis (see cannabis). As the name of the fiber made from the plant, by c. 1300. Slang sense of "marijuana" dates from 1940s; though scientific use for the narcotic derived from hemp dates to 1870.
Example
- 1. I use natural materials in my shrouds : hemp , for example .
- 2. Besides this , he knew sometimes hemp was used to alleviate pain .
- 3. By the time the lykovs were discovered , their staple diet was potato patties mixed with ground rye and hemp seeds .
- 4. The jatropha plant is sort of like hemp . Growing it allows these poor farmers to take what was unusable land and turn it into a profit center .
- 5. Unfortunately , the us does not discriminate between hemp and marijuana , so growing it for food and fiber in this country is illegal .