Etymologically
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numb

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English nome, also nomen and nomme,[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English numen,[2][5] the past participle of niman (“to take, seize”),[6][7][5][8] so that the adjective meant literally "taken, seized".[6][5] The Old English verb, the source of nim, is from Proto-Germanic *nemaną (“to take”),[6][9][10] the source also of Old Saxon niman, Old High German neman, German nehmen, Old Norse nema and Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman),[6][9][8] perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to assign, allot; take”).[6][10] A similar development is found in German benommen (“dazed, stupefied”), the past participle of benehmen (“to take away”).[3][11] The verb is formed from the adjective,[8][6][3] or is a back-formation from numbed or benumb.[12][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Deprived of feeling or the power of movement, especially through cold: before 1400, in a manuscript of the Cursor Mundi.[8][3] Etymonline dates it to about 1400.[6]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline explains the sense as being "taken" by palsy, shock or, above all, cold;[6] a 15th-century glossary renders nommyn, or takyn with the palsy as Latin paraliticus.[11] The extended sense, as if deprived of feeling, and later emotionally deadened, is recorded from before 1568, in Ascham,[8] or from the 1560s according to Etymonline.[6] From 1642, in Milton, it also described what is typical of numbness.[8] In 19th-century Northamptonshire dialect numb meant clumsy or stupid, as in numbskull.[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as "torpid; deprived in a great measure of the power of motion and sensation".[13] The verb, to make numb, is recorded from 1553 in the participle nummed,[3] and the OED quotes it from 1561, in Hoby's translation of Castiglione;[8] to become numb is from 1867.[8] In American slang of the 20th century, numb meant blind drunk.[14]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – deprived of feeling or movement, nomme.[8][3]
  • 1440 – the spelling nomyn.[3]
  • 1553 – verb, in the participle nummed.[3]
  • before 1568 – figurative, as if deprived of feeling.[8]
  • 1642 – the spelling numb; characteristic of numbness.[3][8]
  • 1854 – clumsy, stupid (dialect).[8]
  • 1867 – verb, to become numb.[8]
  • 1918 – blind drunk (American slang).[14]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Without physical feeling or the power to move, especially from cold or an anaesthetic: After an hour in the snow her fingers were numb.[2][15][8][16]
  2. Without emotion; stunned or indifferent: He sat numb with grief at the funeral.[2][8][16]
  3. Like or typical of numbness: a numb ache in the jaw.[15][8]

Verb

  1. To make numb; to deaden feeling or movement: The dentist numbed the gum before the extraction.[2][15][8]
  2. To become numb.[2][8]

Word family

  • numbly
  • numbness
  • numbfish
  • numbskull
  • benumb
  • mind-numbing
  • numskull
  • nim
  • nimble

Usage notes

The final -b is not etymological: it was added in the 17th century to match words such as comb, limb and dumb.[6][3] Compare the similar -b of thumb.[8][12] The spellings num and numme appear in the mid-16th century;[3] numb is recorded from 1642 but was not usual until the 18th century, and Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon and Milton mostly wrote numme.[3] The older spelling survives in the variant numskull.[3]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster