helpful 
2784 
A skilful chymist can as well, by separation of visible " [The original use in Gen. ii. 18 is correctly reproduced in 
elements, draw helpful medicines out of poison. the following passage, which illustrates the transition to 
Ralriijh, Hist. World. 
More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple 
human pity that will not forsake us. 
Qeorge Eliot, Mill on the Floss, vii. 1. 
helpfully (help'fiil-i), adv. In a helpful or ser- 
the incorrect use : 
It had therefore been much impressed upon his [White- 
fleld'sj heart that he should marry, in order to have a help 
meet for him in the work whereunto he was called. 
Southey, Wesley (2d Amer. ed.), II. 188.] 
viceable" manner. helpWOrthy(help'wer"THi),. Deserving help, 
helpfulness (help'ful-nes), n. The condition Our preaching . . . is apt to be too ambitious. It fails 
or characteristic of being helpful ; assistance ; 'n helpfulness to helpivmrthy people, 
usefulness. Harper't Mag., LXXVIII. 213. 
You saw the beginnings of civilization as it were, and helter-skelter (hel'ter-skel'ter), adv. [First 
the necessity of mutual help/ulness among the settlers. 
W. Black. 
helping (hel'ping), H. [= MHG. helfunge; ver- 
bal n. of help, v.] 1. The act of aiding or giv- 
ing help. 
Somme ther ben here that, while ye haue ben oute of 
contrey, haue deffended youre londe as wele as it hadde 
ben their owne a-gein alle youre enmyes, and have be In 
helpings to alle hem that ye lefte it to kepe. 
Merlin (E. E. T. 8.), ii. 372. 
2. That which is served or offered at one time, 
as food or drink ; a portion. [Colloq.] 
helpless (help'les), a. [< ME. helples (= OS. 
hulpilos = OFries. helpeles = D. hulpeloos = 
OHG. helfelos, MHG. G. hilflos = Icel. hjdlp-launs 
in Shakspere's time ; a dial, expression, being 
a riiniug formula vaguely imitative of hurry 
and confusion. Cf. hurly-burly. The same 
initial sequence h sk appears in harum- 
scarum, dial, havey-scavey, etc.] With confused 
haste or commotion; in a disorderly hurry; 
confusedly. 
Helter-skelter have I rode to thee. 
SAat., 2 Hen. IV., v. 3. 
Heller skelter, hang sorrow, care 11 kill a cat. 
B. Jonnon, Every Man in his Humour, i 3. 
The lightning kept flashing, the rain too kept pouring, 
While they, helter-skelter, 
In vain sought for shelter. 
Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, II. 172. 
= Dan. hjcelpetos = Sw. hjelplos); < help + -less.] helter-skelter (hel'ter-skel'ter), a. and H. [< 
1. Incapable of acting without assistance; helter-skelter, adv.] I. a. Confused; disorderly; 
needing help; incapable of self-support or self- carelessly hurried. 
defense; feeble; dependent: as, a helpless babe ; 
a helpless, shiftless fellow. 
And let a single helples maiden pass 
Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. 
Hilton, Comus, 1. 402. 
Slavery is disheartening; but Nature is not so helpless 
but it can rid itself at last of every wrong. 
Emerson, Fugitive Slave Law. 
2. Incapable of helping ; affording no help ; 
unaiding. [Rare.] 
The gods have been 
Helpless foreseers of my plagues. 
Chapman, Iliad, vi. 385. 
3. Beyond help ; irremediable. 
Such helpless harms it's better hidden keep, 
Than rip up grief, where it may not avail. Spenser. 
The Legislature is always pressed for time during the 
closing week, and the most important business is rushed 
through in helter-skelter fashion. 
The Nation, XL VII. 445. 
II. n. Confused movement or action; dis- 
orderly hurry or bustle ; confusion. 
Such a clatter of tongues in empty heads, 
Such a helter-skelter of prayers and sins. 
Longfellow, Golden Legend, v. 
The system of classification [of antiquities in the Vati- 
can] is based on the history of their collection by the dif- 
ferent popes, so that, for every other purpose but that of 
securing to each pope his share of glory, it is a system of 
helter-skelter. George Eliot, in Cross, II. x. 
helter-skelteriness (hel'ter-skel'ter-i-nes), n. 
Disorderly haste ; heedless confusion. [Bare.] 
4. Unsupplied; destitute. [Rare.] 
Helpless of all that human wants require. Dryden. 
helplessly (help'les-li), adv. In a helpless helve (helv). . [< ME. helve, earlier helfe, < 
AS. Itelf (the dat. occurs spelled hielfe and the 
While the picturesqueness of the numerous pencil- 
scratches arrested my attention, their helter-skelteriness 
of commentary amused me. Poe, Marginalia, Int. 
manner or condition. 
But if he be thus helplessly distract, 
Tis requisite his office be resign'd, 
And given to one of more discretion. 
Spanish Tragedy, Iv. 
helplessness (help'les-nes), n. The state of 
being helpless. 
It is the tendency of sickness to reduce our extravagant 
self-estimation, by exhibiting our solitary helplensnets. 
Rucktiiintiti'i: 
No one can be barbarous enough to desire the continu- 
ance of poor wretches in error and helphnxnesi, that he 
may tyrannize over them with impunity. 
Seeker, Works, V. xii. 
helplyt (help'li), . [ME., = MLG. hulplik = 
MHG. helfelich,helflich ; cf. G. be-Milflich = Dan. 
be-hjcdpelig = Sw. be-hjelplig ; < help + -ly 1 .] 
Aiding; assisting; helpful. 
I swor you righte, lo, now. 
To ben youre frende and helply to my myghte. 
Chaueer, Troilus, v. 128. 
helpmate (help'mat), . [< help + mate' 1 -; cf. 
helpfelloiv, an equiv. compound of much older 
date. Cf. helpmeet.'] An assistant; a helper; 
a coadjutor ; a partner. 
God made man first, and out of him created woman ; 
and declared withal, that he therefore created her that 
she might be a help-mate for the man. 
Abp. Sliarp, Works, IV. xii. 
I was now provided with a helpmate. 
Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. 
In Minorca the ass and the hog are common help-mates, 
and are yoked together in order to turn up the land. 
Pennant, Brit. Zool., The Hog. 
pi. spelled hijlfa), a handle, = OD. Ittiv-e = OHG. 
litilb, MHG. /(//), pi. helbe, G. (obs.) helb, a 
handle. The same base appears in helm 1 , AS. 
lielinii (for "helfma), and halter^, AS. lia-lfter: 
see helm 1 , halter 2 , lialbenl.] 1. The handle of 
an ax, adz, or hatchet. 
But Gawein emote the axe helve a-sondre, and the stroke 
descended on the shelde. Merlin (E. E. T. 8.), iii. 534. 
His hand fetcheth a stroke with the ax, ... and the 
head slippeth from the helfe. Dent. xix. 5. 
Let us be sure that the devil take not a helve from our 
own branches to lit his axe. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), I. 103. 
2. The shank of a forge-hammer or trip-ham- 
mer: also used for the whole hammer.- Belly 
helve, a form of helve for a lifting-hammer in which the 
cam is placed below the surface of the ground, and acts 
upon the arm or lever at a point between its head and 
the fulcrum. Nose or frontal helve, a form of helve 
for a lifting-hammer in which the cam acts upon the lever 
at one extremity, while the fulcrum is placed at the other 
extremity. To put the ax In the helve. See oil. To 
throw the helve after the hatchet, to give up entirely ; 
abandon the last resource. 
If shee should reduce the Spaniard to that desperate 
passe in the Netherlands, as to make him throw the helve 
after the hatchet, and to relinquish those provinces alto- 
gether, it would much alter the case. 
Homll, Forreine Travel], 9. 
helve (helv), v . t. ; pret. and pp. helved, ppr. 
helving. [< helve, .] To furnish with a helve 
or handle, as an ax. 
helve-hammer (helv' ham 'er), . A large, 
heavy blacksmiths' hammer for manufacturing 
helpmeet (help'met), n. [An absurd com- wroughWron, tilted by the helve and oscillating 
pound, taken as equiv. to helpmate, the form 
being 
on bearings ; a trip-hammer. 
JL , f --r- growing 
' a help (helper) like himself (adjutorium simi- the 
lent sibi, Vulg.).] A partner; a helpmate; a 
consort ; specifically, a wife. 
According to the latter [narrative of creation] the Lord 
ted Adam, and placed him in the garden of Eden, 
Godcreatei 
. . . and afterwards, on his finding the want of a ,... f 
meet, caused him to sleep, and took one of his ribs, and 
thence made a woman. 
J. H. Newman, Discussions and Arguments (1872), p. 154. 
The [Mormon] saints have gone on with their wholesale 
marrying and sealing, and the head prophet has taken his 
forty-fifth help-meet. ,-. - /i_i, i\ 
New York Tribune, quoted by R. G. White, Words and DelVOr (hel ver), H. 
[their Uses, v. helve of a tool. 
The receptacle is pileate, hanging down over the stem, con- 
cave and barren below. A few of the species are edible. 
2. [I. c.] A fungus belonging to this genus. 
Helvellacese, Helvellacei (hel-ve-la'se-e, -I), 
n. )>l. [NL., < Helvi'lla + -acea;, -acei.] That 
division of the discomycetous fungi which con- 
tains the morels (Morchella) and the genera 
most nearly related to them. The hymenium is 
vertical, the texture soft and waxy. IHscomycetes is a 
synonym. Also written Elvellacea, Elvellacei. 
In mining, the handle or 
hem 
Helvetia green. Same as acid-green. 
Helvetian (hel-ve'shan), a. andw. [< Helvetia 
or Helvetii + -an."] I. a. 1. Of or belonging to 
the ancient people called Helvetii. 2. Of or 
pertaining to Switzerland, called in Middle 
Latin and New Latin Helvetia, with reference 
to the ancient Helvetii; Swiss. See Helvetic. 
Helvetian plover. See plover. 
II. . One of the ancient Helvetii ; hence, an 
inhabitant of Switzerland; a Swiss. 
Helvetic (hel-vet'ik), a. [< L. Helveticus, < Hel- 
cetii, a people of Gallia Lugdunensis, in what 
is modern Switzerland. The name is said to 
mean 'high-hill men.'] 1. Qf or pertaining to 
the Helvetii, the ancient inhabitants of the Al- 
pine region now called Switzerland. 2. Of or 
pertaining to the modern states and inhabitants 
of Switzerland: as, the Helvetic confederacy; 
Helvetic states Helvetic confessions, two confes- 
sions of faith composed by Swiss theologians, represent- 
ing the religious creed of the Reformed cantons of Swit- 
zerland, and bearing date, the first 1536, the second 15Wi. 
They are Protestant in opposition to Romanism, evan- 
gelical in opposition to Pelagianism, Arianism, etc., mode- 
rately Calvlnistic on the subject of election and predes- 
tination and on the subject of the Lord's Supper, and 
Zwinglian in opposition to Lutheranism. Helvetic Re- 
public, a republic comprising the greater part of Swit- 
zerland, which was formed in 1798 under French auspices, 
and existed until 1814. 
helvin, helvite (hel'vin, -vit), . [< L. hel- 
vus. light-yellow (see helvolous), light-bay, + 
-*2, -ite^.j A mineral of a yellowish color, oc- 
curring in regular tetrahedrons, it is a silicate of 
beryllium (glucinum), manganese, and iron, and contains 
also some sulphur. It is found near Schwarzenberg in Sax- 
ony, and in Virginia. 
helvolous (hel'vo-lus),*!.' [< L.helrolus, helvc- 
olus, pale-yellowj yellowish, dim. of helvw, yel- 
low, light-yellow, light-bay (of the color of 
cows, etc.), = AS. geolu, E. yellow, q. v.] Dull 
grayish- or reddish-yellow ; tawny. 
Helwingia (hel-win'ji-a), H. [After Dr. G. A. 
Helving of Angerburg in Prussia, a clergyman 
noted as a botanist. ] A genus of dicotyledonous 
polypetalous plants, founded by Willdenow 
in 1805, of the natural order Araliacece. series 
Panacea?, remarkable in having the small sessile 
and few-flowered umbelets borne on the mid- 
ribs of the leaves near the center. Only two spe- 
cies are known, one inhabiting Japan, the other the Hima- 
layas; they are smooth shrubs with simple-serrulate leaves. 
The young leaves of the Japanese species, H. ruscifolia, 
are used by the inhabitants as an esculent vegetable. 
Helwingiaceae (hel-win-ji-a'se-e), .pl. [NL., 
< Heltviiit/ia + -acea.] An order of plants es- 
tablished by Decaisne in 1836, and adopted by 
Endlicher and Lindley, for the reception of the 
anomalous genus Heliciiigia, now generally re- 
ferred to the Araliace<e. 
helxine (helk'sin), n. [= F. Pg. helxine = It. 
elsinc, < L. helxine, a prickly plant, otherwise 
unknown, also a plant called perdicium, Pa- 
rietaria officinalix (Pliny), < Gr. tt.i-ivti, a plant 
with woolly capsules, perhaps parietaria or ur- 
ceolaris, < efauv, draw, pull, trail.] 1. An old 
name applied by Dioscorides and Pliny to the 
pellitory, Parietaria, to a sort of thistle, Atrac- 
tylis gummifcra, and to the bindweed, Convol- 
vulus arrengis. 2 [cap.~\ (helk-si'ne). A genus 
established by Requien for a plant confined to 
Corsica and Sardinia, which differs botanical- 
ly from Parietaria only by its one-flowered in- 
volucre. It is regarded by many botanists as 
a species of Parietaria (P. Soleiroldii). 
hem 1 (hem), n. [< ME. hem, pi. hemmes, < AS. 
hem (once, glossing L. limbus), edge, border, 
= Fries, dim. hamel, North Fries, heam, ahem, 
edge, border; formed with umlaut < AS. ham, 
pi. hammas, a piece of land fenced in, = G. 
hamm (obs. or dial.), a forest, grove (orig. 
hedge), hamme, a hedge, fence: see ham?. The 
same development of sense, 'fence, hedge, 
grove,' appears in haw 1 , q. v. W. hem, hem, 
is from E.] 1. A narrow fold in the edge of 
a piece of textile material, made to prevent it 
from raveling. The stuff is turned over twice so as to 
cover the raw edge, and the inner fold or crease is sewed 
firmly down. 
And launceth heije her hemmes with babelyng in stretes ; 
The! ben y-sewed with whijt silk & semes full queynte. 
Piers Plowman's Crede (E. E. T. S.X I. 551. 
" For thou must shape a sark to me, . . . 
Without any cut orheme," quoth he. 
The Elphin Knight (Child's Ballads, I. 278). 
My silk may bind 
And broider Ottima's cloak's hem. 
Browning, Pippa Passes, Epil. 
2. Edge ; border ; margin. 
Over the watyre they wente by wyghtnesse of horses, 
And tuke wynde as they walde by the wodde hemts. 
Mart* Arthure (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1S69. 
