Forms: (6 cosmos, 7 cosmus, cossmos: see COSMOS2), 7 chumis, 8 kumisse, (kumish), 8– koumiss, kumiss, kumis, 9 koumis, koomiss, kumys(s, (kimmiz, khoumese). [= F. koumis, G. kumiss, Pol. komis, kumys, Russ. кумысъ kumys, a. Tartar kumiz.] A fermented liquor prepared from mare’s milk, commonly used as a beverage by the Tartars and other Asiatic nomadic tribes; also applied to a spirituous liquor distilled from this.
The fermented beverage is used dietetically and medicinally in various diseases, as phthisis, catarrhal affections, anæmia, chlorosis, etc., and for these purposes imitations are also prepared from asses’ milk and cow’s milk.
1598–1630. [see COSMOS2].
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 332. The Tartarians drinke Mares Milke, which they dress like white wine, and call it Chumis.
1723. Pres. St. Russia, I. 276. [The Kalmucks] drink Kumis, a sort of Brandy drawn off from Mares-milk.
1771. Gentl. Mag., XLI. 594. The sour milk which they [the Tartars] drink they call Kumisse.
1839. E. D. Clarke, Trav. Russia, 52/1. A subsequent process of distillation afterwards obtains an ardent spirit from the koumiss.
1876. Bartholow, Mat. Med. (1879), 22. By the fermentation of mare’s milk an alcoholic liquor, named koumiss, is prepared in Tartary, and has been introduced into medical practice as a remedy for phthisis.
1892. Daily News, 28 Dec., 5/4. Mrs. Isabel Hapgood … gives some interesting particulars of koumiss (or ‘kumys,’ as she prefers to spell it).
attrib. 1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 Sept., 11/2. The koumiss cure is growing greatly in popularity…. Sometimes patients spend six or seven summers at the koumiss establishments.
