The A-Teem

Katy from Suttons Bay writes, “I heard a CNN reporter say that the streets of Cairo were teaming with thousands of demonstrators, and I wondered what he meant.”

We’re not talking about a well-coordinated athletic event here. The verb that the reporter used is spelled teeming, and it means to swarm. The interesting thing is that there are three verbs spelled t-e-e-m, and they are not connected.

Teem¹ came from an Old English word that meant to bear children. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this is how it expanded.

• To bring forth, produce, give birth to, bear (offspring).
• To bring forth young, bear or produce offspring; to be or become pregnant.
• To be full, as if ready to give birth; to be prolific or fertile; to abound, swarm.
• In Anglo-Saxon law: To refer or trace (property), for evidence of ownership, to a third person representing the party from whom it was acquired; to vouch to warranty.
• To refer or appeal to for confirmation or testimony: to God I teme, I call God to witness.
• To attach oneself (to any one) in fealty, dependence, trust, or love; to turn or draw to.
• To acclaim (as lord); to offer or dedicate (to God); to bring into a position or condition.
• To betake oneself, to repair, go, proceed to.
• To lead to (an issue).

Teem² came from an Old Scandinavian word that meant empty, and it progressed this way.

• To empty (a vessel, etc.); to discharge or remove the contents of; to empty (a wagon, etc.).
• To discharge (something out of or from a vessel, a cart, etc.); to empty out, pour out.
• To drain the water off (boiled potatoes, etc.).
• Of water, etc.: To pour, flow in a stream, flow copiously; of rain: to pour.

Teem³ owed its existence to an Old Saxon word, beteem, that meant to think fit.

• To think fit or proper; to vouchsafe, grant, consent.
• To vouchsafe, accord, grant, concede.
• To allow, permit (to do something).
• To think (a person) worthy, to admit the worth of.

SIDEBAR: Teem – Swear Down

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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