cumber

See also: 'cumber

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌmbə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ʌmbə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English combren, borrowed from the second element of Old French encombrer, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kombereti (“to bring together”), from *kom- +‎ *bereti (“to bear”). Cognate with German kümmern (“to take care of”).

Verb

cumber (third-person singular simple present cumbers, present participle cumbering, simple past and past participle cumbered)

1. (transitive, dated) To slow down; to hinder; to burden; to encumber.
   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Why asks he what avails him not in fight, / And would but cumber and retard his flight?

   • a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC:

     The multiplying variety of arguments, especially frivolous ones, […] but cumbers the memory.

   • 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume I (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 71:

     Wounded and overthrown, the Britons continued their resistance, clung round the legs of the Norman steeds, and cumbered their advance; while their brethren, thrusting with pikes, proved every joint and crevice of the plate and mail, or grappling with the men-at-arms, strove to pull them from their horses by main force, or beat them down with their bills and Welch hooks.

   • 1886, Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel. Pub.: Adams & Charles Black, Edinburgh; page 321:

     […] the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall not cumber the earth long after him.

   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 290:

     [T]hese people, whose name, much as I would like to express my gratitude to them, I may not even give here, nevertheless cumbered themselves with me, sheltered me and protected me from myself.

   • 1911, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson:

     Why had he not killed himself long ago? Why cumbered he the earth?

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 98:

     Moreover, that distinctive hair of hers was screwed up into a tight plait and she carried a heavy basket on her hip and a weighted bucket of oysters in her other hand, which cumbered the grace of her body and turned her into the dull replica of any other peasant creature.

Alternative forms

• cumbre (archaic)

Synonyms

• encumber
• See also Thesaurus:hinder

Derived terms

• cumberer
• cumberer
• cumberless
• cumberment
• discumber
• overcumber
• uncumber

 

• cumberground
• cumbersome
• cumberworld

Related terms

• encumber
• encumbrance

Translations

to slow down, to hinder, to burden

• Bulgarian: затруднявам (bg) (zatrudnjavam), обременявам (bg) (obremenjavam)
• French: encombrer (fr)

Etymology 2

From Middle English komber, kumbre (“distress; destruction”). According to the Oxford English Dictionary (1st edition, 1893; entry not updated yet), used early in the 14th century in the very scarcely attested “destruction” sense, but not common till the 16th century, and then at first chiefly Scots, where it is also spelt cummer. It states that the date, form, and sense, are all consistent with its being either a derivative of the verb (Etymology 1) or a shortened form of encomber, encumbir, encumbre (“trouble; misfortune; harm, ruin”), from Old French encombre, but that the sense “trouble, distress” strikingly coincides with German Kummer, Middle High German kumber, Middle Low German kummer, and Dutch kommer, additionally providing the following note:

OF. had only combre fem. in the sense ‘heap of felled trees, stones, or the like’ (Godef.), corresponding to med.L. combra ‘a mound or mole in a river for the sake of catching fish’ (Du Cange), and akin to Merovingian L. cumbrus, pl. cumbri, combri ‘barriers of felled trees’ (Du C.), whence med.L. incumbrāre, F. encombrer, to Encumber. Cf. also Pg. combro ‘a heap of earth’. In the Meroving. L. cumbrus, Diez (s.v. Colmo saw a barbaric form, through *cumblus, of L. cumulus heap: so also Littré, Scheler, Brachet, s.v. Encombre. But the question of the actual origin of cumbrus, and its relation to the Ger. kummer and its family, is a difficult one, which has been much investigated and discussed: see Grimm, Kluge, Franck, Doornkaat-Koolmann.

The Middle English Dictionary on the other hand does not provide an origin for the noun, only comparing the noun encumbre.

Noun

cumber (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Trouble, distress.
   • 1810, The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott, 3.XVI:

     Fleet foot on the correi, / Sage counsel in cumber, / Red hand in the foray, / How sound is thy slumber!

2. Something that encumbers; a hindrance, a burden.

Derived terms

• cumbrous

Etymology 3

Alternative forms

• 'cumber

Noun

cumber (plural cumbers)

2. (colloquial) Clipping of cucumber.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “cumber”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• cumbre, recumb