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Etymology and origin of the French word comble

French has two words spelled comble: a noun from Latin cumulus and an adjective formed from combler.[1][2][3]

comble1 top, height

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1160 Wace, Roman de Rou
Inherited from
Latin cumulus via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin cumulus
Etymology tree of comble1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cumulus
French comble
English cumulus
From the same root · comble1
Latin cumulō ← cumulus

Pronunciation

Forms

comble m (plural combles)[4] Old French cumble.[5][4]

Etymology

The word for the top or height is inherited from Old French cumble, inherited from Latin cumulus (“heap, surplus”), through a Vulgar Latin form *cumlus.[6][5][4][7][3] The Latin noun meant a heap, a quantity over the measure, and figuratively “surplus” and “crowning, peak”; in that last sense it stood for culmen (“summit”), from which it seems to have taken the sense “top”.[6][5][8] The learned cumulus is its doublet.[4]

Cognate with Italian colmo, Spanish colmo and Old Occitan comol.[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears about 1160 in Wace's Roman de Rou in the phrase a cumble, “heaped above the rim of the measure”.[6][5]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense of grain heaped above a full measure was always rare; the figurative “highest degree” (li combles del reguerredon, second half of the 12th century) is the living one, today mostly in a bad sense: c'est le comble.[6][5] The Grand Robert also records it in 1175 for a mound.[1]

From the late use of cumulus for culmen it took the building sense, the timber frame that carries a roof (Villard de Honnecourt, 1260).[6][5] The plural combles for the rooms just under the roof dates from 1811.[6][5] De comble en fons (before 1574) was remade as de fond en comble (1680), which soon meant “completely”.[6][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1160 – A cumble “heaped over the measure” in Wace.[6]
  • second half of the 12th century – The sense “highest degree”.[6]
  • 1175 – It names a mound.[1]
  • 1260 – Villard de Honnecourt uses it of a roof frame.[6][5]
  • before 1574 – De comble en fons, literally “from top to bottom”.[6]
  • 1589 – The phrase is used figuratively for “completely”.[6]
  • 1680 – Richelet records de fond en comble.[6][5]
  • 1811 – Combles “attic rooms” in Jouy.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (rare) What is heaped above the rim of a full measure.[2][8]
  2. The highest degree or height of something: le comble du ridicule, être au comble de la joie.[2][11]
  3. C'est le comble, c'est un comble: that is the last straw.[2][11]
  4. Pour comble, pour comble de malheur: to crown it all.[2][11]
  5. (architecture) The frame of a building that carries the roof.[2][5]
  6. (often plural) The space just under the roof, the attic: loger sous les combles.[5][2]
  7. (heraldry) A chief of reduced size.[4]

Word family

  • de fond en comble

comble2 full, packed

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1200
Ultimate origin
Latin cumulus
Etymology tree of comble2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cumulus
English cumulus
Latin cumulō
French combler
French comble
From the same root · comble2
English cumulative ← cumulō
Latin accumulō ← cumulō

Pronunciation

Forms

comble (plural combles)[4]

Etymology

The word for “full, packed” is from French combler.[1][2][3][11][5] The verb is from Latin cumulō (“to heap up”), from the same Latin noun as comble1.[6][5] Wiktionary instead derives the adjective directly from Old French cumble.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found about 1200 in the sense “filled to the brim”.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Its early figurative use, “filled with good things”, passed to the past participle comblé.[5] Today it mostly means, by exaggeration, “packed full” of an enclosed space, a hall or a bus (1817).[5] In veterinary medicine pied comble (1393) is a hoof whose sole alone bears the weight.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – First recorded, “filled to the brim”.[5]
  • 1393 – Pied comble in veterinary use.[5]
  • 1817 – The sense “packed with people”.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Filled above the brim: une mesure comble.[2][11]
  2. La mesure est comble: it is more than one can bear.[2][11]
  3. Packed with people, crowded: le train était comble.[2][11]
  4. Faire salle comble: to fill a theatre or hall.[2][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1527b
  8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Comble.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/comble. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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