hæmp

Old English hæmp came from Proto-Germanic *hanapiz, which may derive ultimately from a pre-Indo-European or Scythian word. The word appears in very similar forms across many Indo-European languages: Greek kannabis, Persian kanab, Sanskrit śaṇa, Russian konoplya — suggesting that the plant and its name were adopted from a common source, possibly the Scythian peoples of the Central Asian steppe, who cultivated hemp extensively. Cannabis sativa may have been domesticated as early as 8000 BCE in Central Asia.

Hemp's primary historical uses were industrial rather than psychoactive: the long bast fibers of the stem were processed into rope, canvas, and coarse cloth. The word canvas itself derives from cannabis — canvas was hemp cloth. The sails and rigging of virtually every European sailing ship from antiquity to the 19th century were made of hemp. The British Navy's requirement for hemp was so large that it drove the cultivation of hemp across the empire, including in Virginia and Kentucky in colonial America.

The hemp plant's association with rope and sail made it essential to maritime empire. Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (1805) carried approximately 60 tons of hemp rigging. The hemp supply chains that ran from the Baltic states (Prussia, Russia) through the Netherlands to England were strategic assets — Russia's hemp was a major reason Britain maintained diplomatic relations with Russia during the Napoleonic Wars despite ideological differences. Napoleon's Continental System tried to cut Britain off from Baltic hemp.

Today industrial hemp is experiencing a legal and commercial revival in many countries, separated in law from cannabis grown for its psychoactive properties. Hemp fibers are used for textiles, paper, insulation, and composite materials; hemp seeds are a food product; hemp-derived CBD oil is a booming wellness product. The plant that rigged Nelson's fleet is now packaging materials and food supplements.