< Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic
Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/humelaz
Proto-Germanic
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Indo-European *km̥H-el-os (“bumblebee”), probably onomatopoeic from a root *kemH- (“to hum”). Cognate with Proto-Slavic *čьmèľь (“bumblebee”), *komãrъ (“mosquito”), Lithuanian kamãnė, Old Prussian camus (“bumblebee”).
Noun
*humelaz m
- bumblebee
Related terms
- *hummōną (“to hum”)
Descendants
- Proto-West Germanic: *humel
- Middle Dutch: homel
- Dutch: hommel
- Old English: *humbel
- ⇒ Old English: myōð-umbel
- ⇒ Middle English: humbul-bē, hombul-bē
- English: bumblebee
- Scots: bumbee
- Yola: bumble-bee
- Old High German: humbal, humbala, humbalo
- Middle High German: humbel, hummel
- German: Hummel
- Middle High German: humbel, hummel
- Middle Low German: homele, homelte
- Middle Dutch: homel
- Old Norse: humla
- Danish: humle, humlebi
- Faroese: humla
- Icelandic: humla
- Norwegian Bokmål: humle
- Norwegian Nynorsk: humle
- Swedish: humla
Further reading
- Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*humela-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 255: “m. 'bumblebee'”