hempen, a. (n.)
(ˈhɛmpən)
Also 4–5 hempyn(e, -pene, (6–7 hempton, 7 hemton), 6–8 hemping.
[f. hemp n. + -en4. Not recorded in OE.; but cf. OHG. hanafîn (Ger. hänfen), LG. hempen.]
1. Made of hemp; of or pertaining to hemp.
hempen homespun, homespun cloth made of hemp; hence, one clad in such cloth, one of rustic and coarse manners.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce x. 360 He gert sym of the ledows..Of hempyn rapis ledderis ma. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. lxii. (1495) 898 The weke is made of hempen threde. c 1440 [see hempy a. 1]. 1535 Latimer Serm. Insurr. in North (1844) 29 It is no knot of an hempton girdle. 1558 T. Phaer æneid v. 552 But [he] hyt the hemping corde, and of the knot the bands he brast. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 79 What hempen home-spuns haue we swaggering here? 1651 Miller of Mansf. 8 Good browne hempton sheetes. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 44 A very great succour to the poor, the Hempen Harvest coming after other Harvests. 1703 Wakes Colne, Essex, Overseers' Acc. (MS.), 6 yards of hempinge cloth for two shifts for Suzan Beets. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. x. ii. (1869) I. 128 Weavers of linen and hempen cloth. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid ii. 236 Hempen cords cast over its neck. |
| fig. 1675 Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 297 Coarse hempen Trash is sooner read Than Poems of a finer Thread. |
b. In humorous phrases and locutions, referring to the hangman's halter.
| a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 454 Ware hem of hempyn lane! For stelthe is meeded with a chokelewe bane. a 1529 Skelton Agst. Garnesche 162 Stop a tyd, and be welle ware Ye be nat cawte in an hempen snare. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. vii. 95 Ye shall haue a hempen Caudle then, and the help of hatchet. 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. 67, I..scapde dauncing in a hempen circle. 1606 Dekker Sev. Sinnes vii. (Arb.) 44 Lamentable hempen Tragedies acted at Tiburne. 1632 Randolph Jealous Lovers (N.), Shall not we be suspected for the murder, And choke with a hempen squincey? a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hempen-widdow, one whose Husband was Hang'd. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. T. s.v., A man who was hanged is said to have died of a hempen fever. 1837 Sir F. B. Head Narrative viii. (1839) 208 What could they be worth to him but a hempen neck⁓cloth? |
2. Resembling hemp.
| 1651 J. F[reake] Agrippa's Occ. Philos. 100 It makes a Hempen colour. 1772–84 Cook Voy. IX. iv. iii. (R.), Made of the bark of a pine-tree beat into a hempen state. |
B. n. Hempen cloth.
| 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) I. 255 They found Balboa..wearing coarse hempen used only by the meanest peasants. |