comeling arch. and dial.
(ˈkʌmlɪŋ)
Forms: 3 cume-, kume-, kymeling, komelyng, (? kemeling, -lyng), komlyng, 4–5 cumling, -lyng, 4 cumbling, cumlyne, 4–5 comlyng(e, -ling, (commelyng, -ling), comelyng(e, 4– comeling.
[OE. *cumeling, f. cuman to come + -ling; cf. OHG. chomeling, mod.G. kömmling, in an-, empor-, nachkömmling, etc.]
One who has come to a place, as distinguished from its permanent residents; an immigrant, newcomer, stranger, sojourner; also (obs.) a novice.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 834 Neȝ ilc burȝe hadde ise louereding, Sum was king, and sum kumeling. 1274 Rotuli Hundred. (1818) II. 118 a, Capit et retinet averia de astraura [= estray] quae dicunt wayf vel cumeling. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 25 Þou hast now forsake My doȝter..& to a kemeling take. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1385, I am a commelyng towarde þe, And pilgrym, als alle my faders was. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Petrus 649 He wes bot a cumlyne. 1382 Wyclif Eph. ii. 19 Now ȝe ben not herborid men and gestis (or comelingis) but ȝe ben citeseyns. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 161 Þe langage of Normandie is comlynge of anoþer londe. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 89 Comelynge, new cum man or woman. 1577–87 Harrison Descr. Brit. in Holinshed iv. 6 These new comlings began to molest the homelings. 1815 Southey Lett. (1856) II. 401–2 To hear..that the new comeling had proved to be of the more worthy gender. 1862 Marsh Orig. & Hist. Eng. Lang. 139 A settled animosity between the home-born and the comeling. |
| attrib. 1382 Wyclif Wisd. xix. 10 In the comeling wonyng of hem [1388 dwellyng among Egipcians]. 1587 Harrison England ii. ix. (1877) i. 189 The comeling Saxons. |
b. (See
quot.).
dial.| 1808 Jamieson, Cumlin, any animal that attaches itself to a person or place of its own accord. |
Hence
† ˈcomelingness, state of a sojourner.
| 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xx. 38, I shal lede out hem fro the loond of her cumlyngnes [1388 dwelling]. |