hymn

English

Etymology

From Middle English ymne, from Old English ymen (reinforced by Old French ymne), from Latin hymnus, borrowed from Ancient Greek ὕμνος (húmnos).

Pronunciation

• enPR: hĭm, IPA^(key): /hɪm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm
• Homophone: him

Noun

hymn (plural hymns)

1. A song of praise or worship, especially a religious one.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat’s-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony—a harmony of sound and colour silvered to a monochrome by the moon.

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 163:

     An interesting feature of the church is the invisible clock, which you can hear thumping away as you enter. Constructed in 1525, it is one of the oldest timepieces in England. It chimes the hours and the quarters, and every three hours it plays a hymn. But it has no faces.

Derived terms

• hymnal
• hymnboard
• hymnbook
• hymn-book
• hymn book
• hymnic
• hymnical
• hymnist
• hymnless
• hymnlike
• hymnodist
• hymnody
• hymnographer
• hymnography
• hymnology
• hymnsheet
• hymnwriter
• hymnwriting
• sing from the same hymn sheet
• sing off the same hymn sheet
• table hymn

Translations

a song of praise or worship

• Afrikaans: himne
• Albanian: himn (sq)
• Amharic: ማሕሌት (maḥlet), ሐልዮ (ḥälyo)
• Arabic: تَرْتِيلَة f (tartīla), تَرْنِيمَة f (tarnīma), تَسْبِيحَة f (tasbīḥa)

  Egyptian Arabic: ترتيل m (tartīl)

• Armenian: ձոն (hy) (jon), գովերգ (hy) (goverg), ներբող (hy) (nerboġ), օրհներգ (hy) (ōrhnerg)
• Asturian: himnu m
• Azerbaijani: himn (az)
• Bashkir: гимн (gimn)
• Basque: ereserki
• Belarusian: гімн m (himn)
• Bengali: স্তবগান (stobogan)
• Breton: kaniri f
• Bulgarian: химн (bg) m (himn)
• Burmese: ချီးမွမ်းသီချင်း (hkyi:mwam:sihkyang:)
• Catalan: himne (ca) m
• Chechen: гимн (gimn)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 頌 / 颂 (zh) (sòng), 讚美詩 / 赞美诗 (zh) (zànměishī), 聖歌 / 圣歌 (zh) (shènggē)

• Crimean Tatar: gimn
• Czech: chvalozpěv (cs) m, chorál (cs) m, hymnus (cs) m
• Danish: hymne c
• Dutch: lofzang (nl) f, hymne (nl) f
• Esperanto: himno (eo)
• Estonian: hümn
• Faroese: lovsongur m
• Finnish: virsi (fi) (religious), hymni (fi) (non-religious)
• French: hymne (fr) m or f
• Friulian: imni m
• Galician: himno (gl) m
• Georgian: ჰიმნი (ka) (himni)
• German: Hymne (de) f (now rare in this sense), Hymnus (de) m, Kirchenlied (de) n, Loblied (de) n, Lobgesang (de) m
• Greek: ύμνος (el) m (ýmnos)

  Ancient: ὕμνος m (húmnos)

• Gujarati: ભજન (bhajan), સ્તોત્ર (stotra), ઋચા (ŕcā)
• Hebrew: זמירה (z"mirah)
• Hindi: भजन (hi) m (bhajan), स्तोत्र (hi) (stotra)
• Hungarian: himnusz (hu)
• Icelandic: sálmur m, lofsöngur (is) m
• Ido: himno (io)
• Indonesian: gita puja (id), himne (id)
• Irish: iomann m
• Italian: inno (it) m
• Japanese: 賛美歌 (ja) (さんびか, sanbika), 聖歌 (ja) (せいか, seika), 賛歌 (ja) (さんか, sanka)
• Kashubian: himn m
• Kazakh: гимн (gimn)
• Korean: 찬가 (ko) (chan'ga)
• Latin: hymnus m
• Latvian: himna f
• Lithuanian: himnas m
• Luxembourgish: Kierchelidd n
• Macedonian: химна f (himna)
• Malay: gita puja
• Malayalam: ദൈവസ്തുതി (daivastuti), സ്തോത്രം (ml) (stōtraṁ), സങ്കീർത്തനം (ml) (saṅkīṟttanaṁ)
• Maltese: innu
• Maori: himene
• Marathi: ईशस्तोत्र (īśastotra), भजन (bhajan)
• Motu: ane
• Nahuatl: cuicatl (nah)
• Norman: cantique m
• Norwegian: hymne (no) m
• Occitan: imne (oc) m
• Ossetian: гимн (gimn)
• Persian: سرود (fa) (sorud), گاتا (gâtâ), یسنا (fa) (yasnâ)
• Plautdietsch: Kjoakjenleet n
• Polish: hymn (pl) m
• Portuguese: hino (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਗੀਤ m (gīt), ਪਦ m (pad), ਭਜਨ m (bhajan)
• Romanian: imn (ro) n
• Romansch: imni m
• Russian: гимн (ru) m (gimn)
• Scots: hime
• Scottish Gaelic: laoidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: химна f, славопојка f, славопев m, славопевка f

  Roman: himna (sh) f, slavopojka (sh) f, slavopev m, slavopevka f

• Slovak: chválospev m, hymnus m
• Slovene: himna (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: hymna f

  Upper Sorbian: hymna f

• Spanish: himno (es) m, salmo (es) m, cántico m, canto (es) m, motete (es) m, aleluya (es) f, miserere (es) m, réquiem (es) m, antífona (es) f, salmodia (es) f
• Swahili: wimbo (sw)
• Swedish: hymn (sv) c, lovsång (sv) c
• Tagalog: himno (tl)
• Tamil: பாசுரம் (ta) (pācuram), தேவாரம் (ta) (tēvāram)
• Thai: เพลงสวด (pleeng-sùuat)
• Tibetan: ཆོས་གླུ (chos glu), མགུར (mgur)
• Turkish: ilahi (tr)
• Turkmen: gimn
• Ukrainian: гімн m (himn)
• Urdu: حَمْد (ur) f (ḥamd), ثَنا (s̱anā), کَلام (ur) m (kalām), نَظْم m (naz̤m)
• Uzbek: madhiya (uz)
• Vietnamese: thánh ca (vi)
• Volapük: hüm (vo)
• Welsh: emyn m
• West Frisian: hymne
• Yiddish: הימנע f (himne)

Verb

hymn (third-person singular simple present hymns, present participle hymning, simple past and past participle hymned)

1. (ambitransitive) To sing a hymn.
   • 2009 January 21, Michael Coveney, “Tom O'Horgan”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     An unknown cast, including Diane Keaton, hymned the Age of Aquarius, stripped off at the end of the first act and let the sunshine in at the end of the second.

2. (transitive) To praise or extol in hymns.
   • 1827, [John Keble], The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC:

     To hymn the birth-night of the Lord.

   • 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza XXIX:

     Their praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine.

Translations

Translations

• Spanish: salmear (es), salmodiar (es)

See also

• theody

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin hymnus, from Ancient Greek ὕμνος (húmnos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɘmn/

• Audio 1:

  (file)

• Audio 2:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɘmn
• Syllabification: hymn

Noun

hymn m inan

1. (music) anthem
2. (poetry, religion) hymn

Declension

Declension of hymn

	singular	plural
nominative	hymn	hymny
genitive	hymnu	hymnów
dative	hymnowi	hymnom
accusative	hymn	hymny
instrumental	hymnem	hymnami
locative	hymnie	hymnach
vocative	hymnie	hymny

Derived terms

adjective

• hymniczny

Descendants

• →? Belarusian: гімн m inan (himn)
• → Russian: гимн m inan (gimn) (likely)
  • → Armenian: հիմն (himn)
  • → Bashkir: гимн (gimn)
  • → Crimean Tatar: gimn
  • → Georgian: ჰიმნი (himni), გიმნი (gimni) — informal, proscribed
  • → Kazakh: gïmn
  • → Kildin Sami: гӣммн (gīmmn)
  • → Urum: гимн
  • → Uzbek: gimn
• →? Ukrainian: гімн m inan (himn)

Further reading

• hymn in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• hymn in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Noun

hymn c

1. hymn, anthem

Declension

Declension of hymn

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	hymn	hymns
	definite	hymnen	hymnens
plural	indefinite	hymner	hymners
	definite	hymnerna	hymnernas