cuman

Forms

cuman (strong class 4; third-person singular present cymeþ, past singular cōm, past plural cōmon)^[1] Past singular also cwōm, plural cwōmon; past participle cumen.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”).^[1] The strong verb is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (qiman), Old Norse koma, Old Frisian kuma, Old Saxon kuman and Old High German queman.^[4][5]

Kroonen sets up two ablaut variants, *kweman- and *kuman-.^[4] He thinks the Germanic verb most likely continues a root aorist, and names as another possibility a zero grade taken over from a present of the tudáti type, with the full grade restored in the Gothic and Old High German verbs.^[4] The root is Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (“to step, come”); its other descendants include Latin veniō (“to come”) and Ancient Greek βαίνω (baínō, “to go”).^[4][5][6] Wiktionary derives the Germanic present from the aorist subjunctive *gʷémt.^[1]

The ⟨u⟩ of the Old English verb is one of the isolated cases in which Germanic /u/ was kept before a nasal instead of being lowered.^[7] The second and third person singular present, ⟨cymst⟩, ⟨cymþ⟩, have i-umlaut, and in this verb the umlauted forms resisted levelling unusually well.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded from the mid-ninth century: the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter writes & soðlice somud cwom mid him “and truly he came together with them” over the Latin “Etenim assur simul uenit cum illis” of Psalm 82.^[9][10] The Old English Bede has ge hider feorran elþeodige cwomon “you came here from far away as strangers”.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb means “to come” and also “to go” and “to happen”: ðonne wīg cume “when war comes” in Beowulf.^[2] With an infinitive it forms a sort of periphrasis for verbs of motion, cōm fēran “came walking”, cōm grētan “came to greet”;^[2][3] Beowulf uses it so, and also of morning and evening coming on.^[2][3] Toller adds the senses “to come to a state, become, turn out” (hit cymð ēow tō wuldre “it will turn to your glory”) and, with of, “to be derived from”;^[12] hwǣr cōm asks what has become of something, as in the Wanderer.^[12] With ūp it means “to land”: on þyssum ēalande cōm upp Agustinus.^[12]

The verb lived on as Middle English comen, whose past cam was formed by analogy.^[13] It is now English come.^[14]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – somud cwom glossing “simul uenit” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[9][10]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – feorran elþeodige cwomon in the Old English Bede (Tanner 10).^[11][10]
• s. x² – hwǣr cōm “what has become of” in the Wanderer (Exeter Book).^[12][15]
• s. x/xi – cōm and cwōm side by side in the Beowulf manuscript.^[3][16]
• a1121 – the MED's first quotations for Middle English comen, from the Peterborough Chronicle.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. to come, approach, arrive.^[2][17]
2. to go, depart; to happen, befall.^[2][17]
3. with an infinitive of a verb of motion: cōm gangan “came walking”.^[2][3]
4. to come to a state; to become, turn out.^[12]
5. cuman of: to be derived from, spring from.^[12]
6. cuman ūp: to come ashore, land.^[12]

Word family

• becuman
• ofercuman
• ācuman
• forecuman
• forþcuman
• incuman
• tōcuman
• upcuman
• cyme
• cuma

Descendants

• Middle English comen (→ English come; English cum; Scots cum)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 173
3. ^ a b c d e Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. cuman
4. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 316
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 227
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 3.11
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.85
9. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
10. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
11. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 531
12. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 135
13. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
17. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cuman