Now chiefly dial. Also 5 pl. comys, 7 coom, 9 coomb, comb. [Known only from 15th c., but app. cognate with mod.G. keim in same sense, and thus repr. an OE. *cám:—OTeut. type *kaimo- in ablaut relation to *kîmo-, *kîmon-, whence OHG. chîm, chîmo. It has app. been sometimes confused with prec.; cf. COME v. in sense 14.]
The radicle of barley or other grain which in malting is allowed to develop to a certain point, and is then dried up by the process of roasting, and afterwards separated from the malt. In earlier quots. the acrospire was perhaps included.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 89. Comys of malte [1499 commys], pululata.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. vii. (1668), 171. You shall rub it [the Malt] exceeding well between your hands, to get the Come or sprouting clean away. Ibid. The falling off of the come or sprout when it is throughly dryed.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. i. 3. In Corn [the Radicle] is that Part, which Malsters, upon its shooting forth, call the Come.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), I. Come, small strings of malt.
1872. Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 279. The sprouted radicles (called coombs or chives) are broken off and separated.
1888. W. Somerset Word-bk., s.v. Combings, In the process of malting each corn of barley grows a very distinct root—called combings or combs.
