yelm
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /jɛlm/
rhymes: -ɛlm
Forms: form: yelms
form: yelming
form: yelmed
form: yelmed
form: yealm
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English yelm, from Old English ġielm (“bunch or handful (of plant stems)”), from Proto-West Germanic *galmi (“bundle or handful of plants”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“green, yellow”) or *gʰel- (“to cut”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: To choose and lay out (straw) straight to be used for animal fodder or thatching; to helm.
examples: text: [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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: To choose and lay out straw straight to be used for animal fodder or thatching; to helm.
Derived terms: yelmer