thombe

== Middle English == === Etymology 1 === Inherited from Old English þūma, from Proto-West Germanic *þūmō, from Proto-Germanic *þūmô. As shown by their early attestation, spellings with final -b- are not mere hypercorrect forms, but rather represent pronunciations with /b/; such pronunciations presumably originated in a plural *thomben or genitive plural *thombene (from Old English þūman, þūmena). Such forms are also presumably the origin of variants with a short vowel. ==== Alternative forms ==== tombe, thom, thome, thoombe, thoumb, thoumbe, thoume, thowmbe, thumbe, thume, þom, þomb, þombe, þome, þoombe, þoumb, þoumbe, þoume, þowmbe, þumb, þumbe, þume tumb (Northern) þhomme (West Midland) ==== Pronunciation ==== IPA(key): /ˈθumb(ə)/, /ˈθuːmb(ə)/, /ˈθum(ə)/, /ˈθuːm(ə)/ ==== Noun ==== thombe (plural thombes) thumb (opposable digit) thumb-length (unit of length) (rare) big toe ===== Descendants ===== English: thumb Scots: thoum Yola: thoome, thoume, thouum ===== References ===== “thǒume, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. Berndt, Rolf (1968), “Bemerkungen zur geschichtlichen Entwicklung der englischen Sprache”, in Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, volume 16, number 2, Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie, page 163. === Etymology 2 === ==== Noun ==== thombe (plural thombes) alternative form of tombe (“tomb”)