Other forms: helms
The helm is the wheel or tiller used to steer a boat. Take the helm, at the helm, put the helm over.
The helmsman is whoever is steering. The figurative use is very common in business writing: at the helm means in charge — she took the helm in 2009. Note that helm is unrelated to helmet, despite the resemblance, and that a helm can be either a wheel on a large vessel or a tiller on a small one — the word names the job rather than the object.
1nounhelmThe wheel or tiller used to steer a boat.
“The captain took the helm and steered the boat safely into the harbour.”
2nounpositionThe position of being in charge.
“She took the helm in 2009 and turned it round in four years.”
helm is a steering position.
Old English helma meant a tiller or handle, from a root meaning to cover. Helmet comes from a different Germanic word for a protective covering, so the two look related and are not.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱel- — to cover
Proto-Germanic
*helmô — handle; helm, tiller
Old English
helma — helm, tiller
Middle English
helm
English, today
helm
Built from
The noun is derived from Middle English helm, helme (“tiller of a ship”), from Old English helma (“helm, tiller”), from Proto-Germanic helmô (“handle; helm, tiller”), either from Proto-Indo-European ḱel- (“to cover”) or from the same source as haulm and helm (“bentgrass, straw”) (see below), ḱélh₂-m(on)- (“reed, hollow stalk”), one form of which then developed a specialized meaning “handle” in Germanic. The verb is derived from the noun. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA