helmet

B1 Topic:Clothing & Appearance

US /ˈhɛlmɪt/ See IPA manual

Freq #4768

Meanings

1

noun
A hard hat worn to protect the head.

Always wear a helmet when riding your bike.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a hard hat worn to protect... helm

Word family

Forms helmets

Derived forms behelmetedblue-helmetcrash-helmethelmetcamhelmetcresthelmetlesshelmetlikehelmetshrikeunhelmet

Related forms helm

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

crash helmet
a protective helmet worn to reduce head injury in a riding accident

Noun + noun

Proverbs (1)

See all

Life is tough; wear a helmet

Simplified etymology

Helmet, recorded in late Middle English, ultimately comes from an ancient Indo-European root meaning “cover” or “hide,” also ancestral to hell, hole, and the plant-related verb heel.

Etymology

From Middle English helmet, helmett, a borrowing from Old French helmet, heaumet, a diminutive of helme (Modern French heaume), equivalent to helm + -et. The Old French is itself of Germanic origin (whence Old English helm). Used in English since the 15th century, it has largely displaced helm as the general word.

*ḱel- (cover) Proto-Indo-European helmet Middle English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Clothing & Appearance

External links

# helmet

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈhɛlmɪt/
**Frequency rank:** 4768

## Meanings
1. A hard hat worn to protect the head.

## Examples
- Always wear a helmet when riding your bike.

## Derived Forms
- behelmeted
- blue-helmet
- crash-helmet
- helmetcam
- helmetcrest
- helmetless
- helmetlike
- helmetshrike
- unhelmet

## Related Forms
- helm

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *ḱel- (cover)
- Root: helmet

## Etymology
From Middle English helmet, helmett, a borrowing from Old French helmet, heaumet, a diminutive of helme (Modern French heaume), equivalent to helm + -et. The Old French is itself of Germanic origin (whence Old English helm). Used in English since the 15th century, it has largely displaced helm as the general word.

## AI Etymology
Helmet comes from Middle English helmet, helmett, a borrowing from Old French helmet, heaumet, a diminutive of helme (Modern French heaume), equivalent to helm + -et. The Old French is itself of Germanic origin (whence Old English helm). Used in English since the 15th century, it has largely displaced helm as the general word. The analysis is mainly morphological: the modern nominal form is built from the named base and affix. The historical line also includes *ḱel- (cover) (Proto-Indo-European). In current use, the main sense is “A hard hat worn to protect the head”.

## Topics
- Clothing & Appearance

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