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Wiktionary

combe

See also: Combe, and combé

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English coumbe, cumbe, from Old English cumb, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kumbaz; compare Dutch kom (“bowl, basin”), German Kump (“vessel”).

Related to Welsh cwm (“a hollow valley”), Ancient Greek κύμβη (kúmbē, “hollow”), Sanskrit कुम्भ (kumbha, “a pot, jug”), etc. through Proto-Indo-European *ḱumbʰ-.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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combe (plural combes)

  1. A valley, often wooded and often with no river
    • 1914, Saki, ‘The Cobweb’, Beasts and Superbeasts:
      its long, latticed window [...] looked out on a wild spreading view of hill and heather and wooded combe.
    • 1805, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Madoc, London: […] [F]or Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and A[rchibald] Constable and Co, […], by James Ballantyne, […], →OCLC:
      gradual rise the shelving combe displayed.
    • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, pages 264-265:
      You wake up next morning on what looks like Salisbury Plain, only here you climb up the side of every combe, round the end and out the other side.
  2. A cirque.

Usage notes

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Used, especially in South West England, in many placenames, e.g. Compton, Salcombe, Wycombe.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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French

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Etymology

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From Transalpine Gaulish *cumba, from Proto-Celtic *kumbā. Compare Breton komm (“river-bed”), Irish com, Welsh cwm.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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combe f (plural combes)

  1. (geography) combe (valley or hollow, often wooded and with no river)

Further reading

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Galician

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Verb

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combe

  1. inflection of combar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈkom.be/
  • Rhymes: -ombe
  • Hyphenation: cóm‧be

Noun

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combe f

  1. plural of comba

Middle English

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Noun

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combe

  1. Alternative form of comb

Spanish

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Verb

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combe

  1. inflection of combar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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