▪ I. † ˈhummel, n. Sc. Obs.
[= MLG. and mod.G. hummel wild bee, drone, Du. hommel drone, = humble in humble-bee.]
A drone; a lazy fellow.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lx. 18 Wyld haschbaldis, haggarbaldis, and hummellis. |
▪ II. hummel, humble, a. Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈhʌm(ə)l, ˈhʌmb(ə)l)
Forms: α. 5 hommyl, 6 homill, hommil, 8– hummel, (8 hummle). β. 7 humbell, 6– humble.
[Corresponds to LGer. hummel, hommel hornless beast (hence draught-ox); cf. hummelbock, hummelgeisz a hornless goat, humlich, dial. hommlich hornless, Bav. humlet hornless. The earlier history of the word has not been traced: there may be radical connexion with hamble to mutilate.]
1. a. Of cattle: Hornless, ‘dodded’.
| 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 164 Quhen uncouth ky fechtis amang thaimself, gif ane of thaim happenis to be slane, and uncertane quhat kow maid the slauchter, the kow that is homill sall beir the wyte. 1584 J. Carmichael Let. in Wodr. Soc. Misc. (1844) 438 When we got it, it was but a Dun humble kow. 1775 Johnson Journ. West. Isles, Ostig Wks. X. 415 Of their black cattle, some are without horns, called by the Scots, humble cows. |
| transf. 1887 Amer. Naturalist Oct. 886 The lop-ear [in the zebu] is a decidedly ‘hummel’ characteristic. |
b. Applied to a hornless stag. Also absol.
| 1907 Spectator 5 Jan. 11/1 The ‘hummel’ stag—that ungainly beast with no horns at all—is a better fighter than the ‘switch-horn’. Ibid. 11/2 The supremacy of the ‘hummels’ and ‘switch-horns’ in battles with their own kind. 1925 J. Buchan John Macnab iv, A hummel, a great fellow of fully twenty stone. 1964 G. K. Whitehead Deer Gt. Brit. & Ireland vii. 156 Some stags never grow any antlers at all and are known as hummels. These beasts would appear to be just as capable of breeding as their antlered brethren. 1972 Country Life 17 Feb. 424/3 The hummel or antlerless stag is not welcome on the purely sporting estate. |
2. Of corn or grain: Awnless. hummel corn, ‘a term applied to the lighter grain of any kind, or that which falls from the rest when it is fanned’ (Jam.); hence used attrib. ‘mean, poor’.
| 1474 Acta Audit. (1839) 35/2, vii chalder of hommyll corne. a 1605 R. Birrel Diary in Dalyell Fragm. Scot. Hist. (1798) 36 The ait maill 10 lib. the boll, the humbell corne 7 lib. the boll. 1792 Statist. Acc. Scotl., Berwicksh. IV. 386 The..hinds..receive 10 bolls oats, 2 bolls barley, and 1 boll peas, which two last articles are called hummel corn. 1870 Ramsay Remin. (ed. 18) 87 A hummelcorn discourse. |
† 3. Broken, chapped, kibed. Obs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 128 In case of humble-heels he applied it sodden in oile. |
▪ III. hummel, humble, v. Sc. and north. dial.
Also 9 homil, humel.
[f. prec. adj.]
1. trans. To deprive of the horns: see hummelled.
2. To remove the awns from (barley). See also quot. 1893.
| ? a 1800 MS. Poem (Jam.), Thair's bear tae hummil. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man II. 30 (Jam.) My heart dunt—duntit like a man humblin bear. 1893 Northumbld. Gloss., Homil, to humble or remove the awns from barley... In breaking stones for macadamised roads, to humel means to break the lumps into smaller sizes preparatory to their being made the requisite size by a smaller hammer. |
Hence ˈhummelling, -eling vbl. n.
| 1835 Penny Cycl. III. 465/2 Barley requires care in thrashing, to break off all the awns close to the grain... It is often necessary..to effect this by another operation..called hummeling. 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 386 A barley aveller or hummelling machine..for the purpose of rubbing the horns or avels off barley..leaving the kernels clean. |