yelm

English

WOTD – 25 February 2025

Etymology

Yelms prepared for thatching at a farm in Alphen aan den Rijn, South Holland, the Netherlands.

The noun is derived from Middle English yelm, from Old English ġelm (Anglia), ġilm (“bunch or handful (of plant stems)”), from Proto-West Germanic *galmi (“bundle or handful of plants”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“to flourish; green, yellow”) or *gʰel- (“to cut”).

The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /jɛlm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlm

Noun

yelm (plural yelms)

1. (UK, dialectal) A bundle of straw laid out straight, chiefly to be used for thatching; a helm.
   • 1822 April 27, John Cowley, William Staines, “L.—On Preserving Turnips, &c. during the Winter.”, in Thomas Gill, editor, The Technical Repository, Containing Practical Information on Subjects Connected with Discoveries and Improvements in the Useful Arts, volume III, London: Printed by R. Watts, for the proprietors; published by T[homas] Cadell, […], published 1823, →OCLC, page 253:

     After the leaves had been removed, as many turnips were thrown together as would lie upon a circle four yards in diameter: yealms of wheat-straw were made, similar to such as are used for thatching, but longer, thicker, and formed with less precision: four tall stakes were then driven into the earth, each a yard from the heap, so as to form a square, each side of which would measure six yards. Two courses of yealms were next placed on the earth, so as to enclose the quadrangle indicated by the stakes; […]

     From the preface to volume XL of the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

   • 1852 December 11, “The Smithfield Club Show—Agricultural Implements”, in R[ichard] A[rchibald] Brooman, editors, The Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette, volume LVII, number 1531, London: Robertson, Brooman, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 467, column 1:

     Another useful implement of Mr. Williams' is his Patent Horse-rake. […] [A] ball working with the leverage of a handle keeps the teeth at their work, and is connected with the bar running underneath by a spring, and cannot lose the yealm.

   • 1866, “a practical farmer” [pseudonym], “The Harvesting of the Mangold Crop”, in The British Farmer’s Magazine, volume XL (New Series), number CXXI, London: Rogerson and Tuxford, […], →OCLC, page 499, column 2:

     The carts take them [mangold or mangelwurzel] to the place for graving, and the whole is so regulated that all are kept going. The grave is usually set out about eight or nine feet in width, and the slant upwards finishes in a point at about five to six feet in height. Straw or stubble is drawn out in "haulms" or "yealms" as for thatching, and with these the grave is securely thatched and made safe by spits of earth being thrown upon the sides.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Hamlet—Cottage Astrology—Ghost Lore—Herbs—The Waggon and Its Crew—Stiles—The Trysting-place—The Thatcher—Smugglers—Ague”, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 124:

     He [the thatcher] is attended by a man to carry up the ‘yelms,’ […]

   • 1952, L[ouis] F[rancis] Salzman, “Thatch, Tiles, Slates, Vanes”, in Building in England down to 1540: A Documentary History, revised edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press by Vivian Ridler […], published 1967, →OCLC, 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.

Translations

bundle of straw laid out straight for thatching — see thatch

Verb

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

1. (transitive, intransitive, UK, dialectal) To choose and lay out (straw) straight to be used for animal fodder or thatching; to helm.
   • 1802 September, O. [pseudonym], “On the Cultivation of Furze”, in The Commercial and Agricultural Magazine, volume VII, number XXXVIII, London: […] Vaughan Griffiths, […], →OCLC, page 201:

     Horses thrive particularly well upon it [furze], and are exceedingly lively and hearty in their work; but I have usually given it to them mixed with chaff, containing one part hay, and two parts straw, yelmed together, and cut by a chaff-cutter.

   • 1860 July 17, Samuel Jonas, “Letter from Mr. Jonas, Communicating a Plan for Cutting and Storing Straw Chaff to the Best Advantage”, in Transactions of the State Agricultural Society of Michigan; with Reports of County Agricultural Societies, for the Year 1859, volume XI, Lansing, Mich.: John A. Kerr & Co., […], published 1861, →OCLC, page 290:

     The straw, when delivered from the threshing machine, […] then comes down an inclined rack, nearly yelmed and ready for cutting into chaff. Three men yelm the straw, mixing it with a small quantity of green fodder, such as rye or tares.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Hamlet—Cottage Astrology—Ghost Lore—Herbs—The Waggon and Its Crew—Stiles—The Trysting-place—The Thatcher—Smugglers—Ague”, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 124:

     [T]wo or three women are busy ‘yelming’—i.e., separating the straw, selecting the longest and laying it level and parallel, damping it with water, and preparing it for the yokes.

   • 1875 March 10, Office of the Commissioners of Patents, Chronological and Descriptive Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted, Containing the Abridgements of Provisional and Complete Specifications Delivered from March 4 to March 10, 1875, London: […] George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, […] [f]or Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, published 5 November 1875, →OCLC, page 187:

     MAYNARD, Robert, engineer, […]—"Improvements in portable chaff-cutting machinery." Apparatus for straightening or "yealming" the straw, and additional means for bringing the straw forward to the knives.

   • 1884 January 17, “Home Farm: New and Improved Agricultural Machinery”, in Robert Hogg, editor, The Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Home Farmer. A Chronicle of Country Pursuits and Country Life, including Bee-keeping, volume VIII (Third Series), London: [Robert Hogg], →OCLC, page 34, column 1:

     We must now call attention to a patent yealming machine by Mr. [Robert] Maynard, and when attached to his combined chaff engine was one of the most attractive novelties in the Agricultural Hall. In using it, a man pitches the hay or straw on to an elevating endless rake, which draws up the material to the yealming apparatus which straightens it for the knife of the chaff-cutter. It is a well-known fact that unless the straw is properly yealmed by hand before it goes into the feeding box a large portion of it goes in sideways and passes out of the engine as cavings. Maynard's mechanical yealming machine does the work better and more regularly than is done by hand, so that there is a gain apart from the great saving of manual labour, consequently the general advantage is immense, because farmers see the practical benefit of the combination.

   • 1952, L[ouis] F[rancis] Salzman, “Thatch, Tiles, Slates, Vanes”, in Building in England down to 1540: A Documentary History, revised edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press by Vivian Ridler […], published 1967, →OCLC, 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.

Alternative forms

• yealm

Derived terms

• yelmer

Translations

to choose and lay out (straw) straight to be used for animal fodder or thatching — see helm

Anagrams

• Emly, Lyme, elmy, lyme, myel-, ylem

Middle English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jɛlm/

Noun

yelm (plural yelmes)

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

Descendants

• English: yelm, yealm

References

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