cumber

== English == === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkʌmbə/ Rhymes: -ʌmbə(ɹ) === Etymology 1 === From Middle English combren, aphetic form of acombren or encombren, borrowed from Old French encombrer, ultimately either from Latin cumulus or 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) (transitive, dated) To slow down; to hinder; to burden; to encumber. Synonyms: encumber, see also Thesaurus:hinder 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. ===== Alternative forms ===== cumbre (archaic) ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Related terms ===== encumber encumbrance ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 2 === From Middle English komber, kumbre, cumbre, combre (“distress; destruction”). Used in 14th century Middle English in the very scarcely attested “destruction” sense but not in common use until the 16th century; at first chiefly Scots, where it is also spelled cummer. Further etymology is uncertain, the term is either: an aphetic form of encomber, encumbir, encumbre (“trouble; misfortune; harm, ruin”), itself from Old French encombre (“a hindrance, difficulty”), see Etymology 1 and French encombrer for further etymology; or, cognate with Middle High German kumber (German Kummer), Middle Low German kummer, and Dutch kommer with which it strikingly shares the meaning “trouble, distress”, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *kumbr (“burden, trouble, sorrow”); or, a deverbal from cumber. ==== Noun ==== cumber (uncountable) (obsolete) Trouble, distress. Something that encumbers; a hindrance, a burden. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) ===== Derived terms ===== cumbrous === Etymology 3 === ==== Alternative forms ==== 'cumber ==== Noun ==== cumber (plural cumbers) (colloquial) Clipping of cucumber. === References === Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “cumber”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. === Anagrams === cumbre, recumb