cuman

From Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną.

cuman

1. to come
   • c. 900 CE, Die altmittel- und altniederfränkischen Psalmen und Glossen [The Old Middle and Old Low Franconian psalms and glosses]:

     Gehōri gebet mīn, te thī alla fleisc cuman sal.

     Hear my prayer, every mortal shall come to you.

   • c. 1100 CE, Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible:

     Sint quāmen se beithe zo Rōme, thār se gemartholot wurthen van Nerōne.

     Thereafter they both came to Rome, where they were tortured by Nero.

• avacuman
• bicuman

• Middle Dutch: cōmen
  • Dutch: komen, kommen
    • Afrikaans: kom
    • Berbice Creole Dutch: kumu
    • Javindo: kom
    • Jersey Dutch: kôme
    • Negerhollands: kom
    • Skepi Creole Dutch: kum, com, come
  • Limburgish: kómme

• “kuman”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

From Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷémt (“to step”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷem-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈku.mɑn/

cuman

1. to come

   Hē cōm hām ġiestran niht swīðe late.

   He came home last night so late.

   Hwanon cōme þū?

   Where did you come from?

   • c. 992, Ælfric, "On the Purification of St. Mary"

     Ēlā, hwænne cymð sē Hǣlend?

     Ah! when will the Saviour come?

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Saint George, Martyr"

     Hāt cuman tō mē þone cristenan mann...

     Bid the Christian man come to me,...

   • c. 992, Ælfric, "On the Greater Litany"

     Wē sind eall cuman on þissum līfe, and ūre eard nis nā hēr, ac wē sind hēr swelċe weġfērende menn. Ān cymþ, ōðer færeþ. Sē biþ ācenned, sē ōðer forþfæreþ and rȳmþ him setl.

     We are all guests in this life, and our home is not here, but we're here as wayfaring people. One person comes, another goes. One is born, another dies and makes them room.

"To come to [do something]" is often expressed with the bare infinitive: Wē cōmon þā sunnan stelan ("We came to steal the sun").

• The variation in stem-vowels in the past tense is explained here. See niman for a similar discussion.
  • The first-and-third-person singular forms in the past indicative ought to have been *cwam / *cwom. (See discussion of Proto-West-Germanic *a before nasal consonants.) However, no spellings have been found to indicate both a short vowel and the consonant /w/. However, such forms are attested in other West Germanic languages; see Old High German quam and Old Saxon quam.
    • The Kentish dialect has the sole attestation to indicate a short vowel: cam in the Eadwine (or Canterbury) Psalter of the mid-1100s. However, this form seems not to have been inherited, since no forms of a similar type appear in Old English until this late period. It seems therefore to be an analogical levelling from verbs of Strong Class IV like stelan or from verbs of Strong Class V like sprecan.
    • The typical forms in the first-and-third-person singular were thus cwōm and cōm. These forms derived from the analogical transfer of the vowel /oː/ from the second-person singular form and the plural form into the first-and-third-person singular forms.
  • The second-person singular form and the plural form ought to have had ⟨cwōm-⟩ as the stem. This results from the rounding and raising of Proto-West-Germanic *ā before nasal consonants before the written Old English period. Compare this with Old English mōna.
  • The major division among the dialects was whether the consonant /w/ was retained. The loss of /w/ is connected to the loss of /w/ in the present tense's system.
    • Mercian and Northumbrian texts had ⟨cwōm-⟩ as the predominant form in the past tense. The Northumbrian portion of the Rushworth Gospels is the only Anglian text to have only ⟨cōm-⟩.
    • West Saxon and Kentish texts had ⟨cōm-⟩ as the predominant form in the past tense.

• Middle English: comen, cumen
  • English: come, cum
    • Solombala English: комъ (kom)
  • Scots: cum
  • Yola: coome, come, cum

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

cuman m

1. milking pail