Etymology: < Latin Hymen, < Greek Ὑμήν, in mythology the god of marriage; also in later Greek = ὑμέναιος a wedding hymn.

Etymology: < Greek ὑμήν, ὑμένος thin skin, membrane. Compare French hymen (Paré 16th cent.).

Etymology: Apparently < 'em pron. + Old English -an , reduced form of the dative plural ending -um . In later use probably with ending reanalysed as plural -en , unless later examples show an independent formation < 'em pron. + -en , plural ending. The motivation for the form was probably to provide a clearer distinction from forms of the third person singular him pron. For a parallel development perhaps compare Middle High German inen (German ihnen ), dative plural third person personal pronoun, where -en probably shows a dative plural ending. For possible reinforcement of a pronoun form with a plural ending, compare his pron.³ Compare also early Middle English ‘double’ plurals in nouns, e.g. children (see child n.), brethren (see brother n.), kine (see cow n.¹). For later survival of a reduced form (which metrical evidence suggests may have existed as early as the 14th cent.) see mun pron.Slightly later evidence is provided by Ling. Atlas Late Mediaeval Eng., which records a form hymen from a copy of Prick of Conscience in the early 15th-cent. MS Laud Misc. 486 (whose scribal language is placed in Gloucestershire). With sense 3 compare the following isolated attestation of a reflexive form heomen sylfum ( < hymen pron. + self pron.) as indirect object in the same source as quot. a1225 at sense 1b:a1225 ( Rule St. Benet (Winteney) (1888) liii. 107 Ðere ricre manna eiȝe & hoȝa ȝemyneȝað þat heomen sylfum weordlice sy ȝeþenod [OE Corpus Cambr. him selfum; L. diuitum terror ipse sibi exigit honorem].