Sc. Also 8 cumb. [Of uncertain origin: the general sense appears to be that of an arched or rounded top, dome. Connection has been suggested with med.L. cumba hold or bottom of a ship or boat, ‘locus imus navis’ (Isidore Orig. XIX. ii. § 1), and with Sp. combo, Pr. comb, bent, curved: cf. COOMB2.]
1. The wooden center or centering on which an arch is built.
1753. Scots Mag., Aug., 422/1. A new-finished arch, from which the cumb or timber frame had been taken away.
1796. in Sinclair, Stat. Acc. Scot., XVII. 3 (Jam.). As several of the arches approach nearly to a straight line, the frame, or coom, on which it was raised, must have sunk while it was building.
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scot., I. 335. The coomb of the most westerly arch appears to have sunk before the arch was thrown over.
1808–25. in Jamieson.
2. ‘The lid of a coffin, from its being arched’ (Jam.).
In quot. 1537, it seems to be used for the coffin as a whole.
1537. Ld. Treasurer’s Acc., in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials Scot., I. 288. Tua pund sex unce blak sewin silk to be Frenȝeis to the Quenis Covme.
1864. Chambers, Bk. Days (1869), I. 824. Some surgeon apprentices rudely stopped the cart … and broke down part of the cooms, or sloping roof of the coffin.
3. Here may belong coom or coomb applied locally to dome-like hills in the North.
Examples are White Coom or Polmoody Coom, a hill 2695 ft. high near Loch Skene, above Moffat, the Coom or Coomb at Teviothead, Coom Cairn, Coom Dod, Comb Law, Comb Hill, all in the south of Scotland; also Comb Fell, south of Cheviot, and Combhill in Northumberland, Black Combe, White Combe, Green Comb, Hen Comb in Cumberland, etc. [In some of these the word may be COMB sb.1 in sense 6 c, d, ‘crest, ridge,’ but the local form of this is kame, kaim, which is actually in use. Attempts have been made to identify the word with COOMB2, esp. in sense c, but on no valid grounds.]
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 323. A Comb, in some places it is said to be … a Hill or Plain between Valleys.
1887. Brighouse News, 26 March. Coom … in Yorkshire … is applied not to a valley or depression of any kind, but to a conical sandy hill, or large hillock, rising out of the level plain … such is Terrington Coom, north-east of York.
4. Comb. coom-coiled a., covered with an arched or vaulted ceiling of plaster: said of a room, in whole or part directly under the roof, as a garret, attic, etc.; cf. CAMP-CEILING. Hence Coom-ceil v.
1795. in Sc. Leader (1887), 16 Aug., 8. For upwards of ten years … it had nothing but the bare rafters above, but in 1795, it was agreed to have it ‘coomceiled … not for ornament, but for the health of the hearers of the gospel.’
1825. in Jamieson.
1858. Mrs. Oliphant, Laird of Norlaw, I. 309. It was a little room … what is called in these regions ‘coomcieled,’ which is to say, the roof sloped on one side, being close under the leads.
1879. Sharp, Burns, 102. A garret, coom-ceiled, for the female servants.
1880. J. F. S. Gordon, Chron. Keith, 422. The last Duchess of Gordon renewed and coomceiled the primitive tabernacle.
