Dictionary

combe en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• ko͞om (UK)
• /kuːm/ (UK)

Etymology

From earlier coom(e), coomb(e), from Middle English *coumbe, *cumbe, *combe, from Old English cumb, comb (“a low place enclosed with hills, dale, valley”), of obscure origin. Likely an adaptation of Old English cumb (“cup, basin; a liquid measure”) compare Dutch kom (“bowl, basin”), German Kumpf (“vessel, container”), but could also possibly be from, or influenced by, Celtic or Anglo-Norman/French; it is currently unclear, and may additionally be an example of a Wanderwort. Compare Welsh cwm (“a hollow valley”), Anglo-Norman cumbe (“a valley, a hollow”), Ancient Greek κύμβη (kúmbē, “hollow”), Sanskrit कुम्भ (kumbha, “a pot, jug”), etc. through Proto-Indo-European *ḱumbʰ-.

Meanings

1. A valley, often wooded and often with no river
   • You wake up next morning on what looks like Salisbury Plain, only here you climb up the side of every combe, round the end and out the other side. 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, pages 264-265:
   • its long, latticed window [...] looked out on a wild spreading view of hill and heather and wooded combe. 1914, Saki, ‘The Cobweb’, Beasts and Superbeasts:
   • gradual rise the shelving combe displayed. 1805, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Madoc, London: […] [F]or Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and A[rchibald] Constable and Co, […], by James Ballantyne, […], →OCLC:
2. A cirque.

Forms

Deriveds

Comstock · Comberow

Translations (8)

ca coma (deep, narrow valley) · bg клисура (deep, narrow valley) · pl kar (deep, narrow valley) · pl kocioł (deep, narrow valley) · fr combe (deep, narrow valley) · ca comal (deep, narrow valley) · pl cyrk lodowcowy (deep, narrow valley) · pt comba (deep, narrow valley)