come

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See also: comé, comê, Come, Côme, and com'è

English

 come on Wikipedia

Etymology 1

From Middle English comen, cumen, from Old English cuman, from Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷémt (“to step”), from *gʷem- (“to step”).

cognates

Cognate from Proto-Germanic with Scots cum (“to come”), Saterland Frisian kuume (“to come”), West Frisian komme (“to come”), Low German kamen (“to come”), Dutch komen (“to come”), German kommen (“to come”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish komme (“to come”), Swedish komma (“to come”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic koma (“to come”).

Cognate from PIE via Latin veniō (“come, arrive”) with many Romance language terms (e.g., French venir, Portuguese vir, Spanish venir), Lithuanian gimti (“to be born, come into the world, arrive”), with terms in Iranian languages (e.g. Avestan 𐬘𐬀𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (jamaiti, “to go”)), via Sanskrit गच्छति (gácchati, “to go”) with many Indic language terms (e.g., Hindi गति (gati)).

Cognate to English basis, from PIE via Ancient Greek.

Pronunciation

Verb

come (third-person singular simple present comes, present participle coming, simple past came or (now nonstandard) come, past participle come or (rare) comen)

  1. (intransitive) To move from further away to nearer to.
    She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes […]
    1. To move towards the speaker.
      I called the dog, but she wouldn't come.
      Stop dawdling and come here!
    2. To move towards the listener.
      Hold on, I'll come in a second.
      You should ask the doctor to come to your house.
    3. To move towards the object that is the focus of the sentence.
      No-one can find Bertie Wooster when his aunts come to visit.
      Hundreds of thousands of people come to Disneyland every year.
    4. (in subordinate clauses and gerunds) To move towards the agent or subject of the main clause.
      King Cnut couldn't stop the tide coming.
      He threw the boomerang, which came right back to him.
    5. To move towards an unstated agent.
      The butler should come when called.
  2. (intransitive) To arrive.
    • 1667 June 23 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “June 13th, 1667”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys , volume VI, London: George Bell & Sons ; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC, page 364:
      Late at night comes Mr. Hudson, the cooper, my neighbour, and tells me that he come from Chatham this evening at five o'clock, and saw this afternoon "The Royal James," "Oake," and "London," burnt by the enemy with their fire-ships: […]
      This passage uses the historical present tense.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, […] , and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.
    • 2013 January 11 [1997], David Bell, Gill Valentine, Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat‎, Routledge, →ISBN, page 140:
      So I'd have ate when me Dad had ate, sort of thing, I think, you know when he come home from work, I'd have waited for him, I wouldn't have said I wanted mine at four o'clock […]
  3. (intransitive) To appear, to manifest itself.
    The pain in his leg comes and goes.
  4. (with an infinitive) To begin to have an opinion or feeling.
    We came to believe that he was not so innocent after all.
    She came to think of that country as her home.
  5. (with an infinitive) To do something by chance, without intending to do it.
    Could you tell me how the document came to be discovered?
  6. (intransitive) To take a position relative to something else in a sequence.
    Which letter comes before Y?   Winter comes after autumn.
  8. (intransitive, often vulgar, slang) To achieve orgasm; to cum; to ejaculate.
    • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, in The Line of Beauty , 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
      Nick was more and more seriously absorbed, but then just before he came he had a brief vision of himself, as if the trees and bushes had rolled away and all the lights of London shone in on him: little Nick Guest from Barwick, Don and Dot Guest's boy, fucking a stranger in a Notting Hill garden at night.
    • 2008, Philip Roth, Indignation:
      The sheer unimaginableness of coming into her mouth — of coming into anything other than the air or a tissue or a dirty sock — was an allurement too stupendous for a novice to forswear.
    He came after a few minutes.
    Come in me!
  9. (intransitive, of milk) To become butter by being churned.
  10. (copulative, figuratively, with close) To approach a state of being or accomplishment.
    They came very close to leaving on time.   His test scores came close to perfect.
    One of the screws came loose, and the skateboard fell apart.
  11. (figuratively, with to) To take a particular approach or point of view in regard to something.
    He came to SF literature a confirmed technophile, and nothing made him happier than to read a manuscript thick with imaginary gizmos and whatzits.
  12. (copulative, fossil word) To become, to turn out to be.
    He was a dream come true.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      How come you thus estranged?
    • 1910, The Poster‎, Poster Advertising Association, Notable Poster Illustrations, page 17:
      He saw a gnarled old woman vigorously scrubbing a very dirty boy, who squirmed under the rough usage and screwed up his eyes and mouth to keep out the soap. "Drat the boy," cried the old lady, wrathfully. "Stand still, do! Will he ever come clean?"
  13. (intransitive) To be supplied, or made available; to exist.
    He's as tough as they come.
    Our milkshakes come in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours.
    A new sports car doesn't come cheap.
  14. (slang) To carry through; to succeed in.
    You can't come any tricks here.
  15. (intransitive) To happen.
    Synonyms: come about, occur, take place
    This kind of accident comes when you are careless.
    • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
      But out of sight is out of mind. And that […] means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair. If that repair does not come in time, the result is noxious and potentially hazardous.
  16. (intransitive, with from or sometimes of) To have as an origin, originate.
    1. To have a certain social background.
      • 2011, Kate Gramich, chapter 3, in Kate Roberts, University of Wales Press, →ISBN, page 46:
        While Kate Roberts came from a poor background and, later in life, in the post-Second World War period suffered from severe money shortages, in the early 1930s, she and her husband must have counted themselves relatively well off, particularly in comparison with their neighbours in Tonypandy.
    2. To be or have been a resident or native.
      Where did you come from?
    3. To have been brought up by or employed by.
      She comes from a good family.
      He comes from a disreputable legal firm.
    4. To begin (at a certain location); to radiate or stem (from).
      The river comes from Bear Lake.
      Where does this road come from?
  17. (intransitive, of grain) To germinate.
  18. (transitive, informal) To pretend to be; to behave in the manner of.
    Don’t come the innocent victim. We all know who’s to blame here.
    • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. , volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, , →OCLC:
      “Hush! hush! Mr. Sikes,” said the Jew, trembling; “don’t speak so loud!” / “None of your mistering,” replied the ruffian; “you always mean mischief when you come that. You know my name: out with it! I shan’t disgrace it when the time comes.”
Usage notes

In its general sense, come specifically marks motion towards the deictic centre, (whether explicitly stated or not). Its counterpart, usually referring to motion away from or not involving the deictic centre, is go. For example, the sentence "Come to the tree" implies contextually that the speaker is already at the tree — "Go to the tree" often implies that the speaker is elsewhere. Either the speaker or the listener can be the deictic centre — the sentences "I will go to you" and "I will come to you" are both valid, depending on the exact nuances of the context. When there is no clear speaker or listener, the deictic centre is usually the focus of the sentence or the topic of the piece of writing. "Millions of people came to America from Europe" would be used in an article about America, but "Millions of people went to America from Europe" would be used in an article about Europe.

When used with adverbs of location, come is usually paired with here or hither. In interrogatives, come usually indicates a question about source — "Where are you coming from?" — while go indicates a question about destination — "Where are you going?" or "Where are you going to?"

A few old texts use comen as the past participle. Also, in some dialects, like rural Scots and rural Midlands dialects, the form comen is still occasionally in use, so phrases like the following can still be encountered there — Sa thoo bist comen heyr to nim min 'orse frae mee, then? (so you have come here to steal my horse from me, then?).

Formerly the verb be was used as the auxiliary instead of have, for example, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

The phrase "dream come true" is a set phrase; the verb "come" in the sense "become" is archaic outside of some set phrases like come about, come alive, come clean, come loose, come true and come undone.

The collocations come with and come along mean accompany, used as "Do you want to come with me?" and "Do you want to come along?" In the Midwestern American dialect, "come with" can occur without a following object, as in "Do you want to come with?" In this dialect, "with" can also be used in this way with some other verbs, such as "take with". Examples of this may be found in plays by Chicagoan David Mamet, such as American Buffalo. This objectless use is not permissible in other dialects.

The meaning in the sense of to ejaculate or orgasm is often considered vulgar slang. Many style guides and editors recommend the spelling come for verb uses while strictly allowing the spelling cum for the noun. Both spellings are sometimes found in either the noun or verb sense, however. Others prefer to distinguish in formality, using come for any formal usage and cum only in slang, erotic or pornographic contexts.

Conjugation
Conjugation of come
infinitive (to) come
present tense past tense
1st-person singular come came, come*
2nd-person singular come, comest† came, come*, camest†, camedst†
3rd-person singular comes, cometh† came, come*
plural come
subjunctive come came, come*
imperative come —
participles coming come, comen**

†Archaic or obsolete. * Now nonstandard. ** Rare.

Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
  • Solombala English: комъ (kom)
Translations
See also

Noun

come (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Coming, arrival; approach.
    • 1869, RD Blackmoore, Lorna Doone, section II:
      “If we count three before the come of thee, thwacked thou art, and must go to the women.”
  2. (vulgar, slang) Semen
    When a man uses a condom during sex, he takes all of his come with him, preventing her from getting pregnant.
  3. (vulgar, slang) Female ejaculatory discharge.
Usage notes

The meaning of semen or female ejaculatory discharge is considered vulgar slang. Many style guides and editors recommend the spelling come for verb uses while strictly allowing the spelling cum for the noun. Both spellings are sometimes found in either the noun or verb sense, however. Others prefer to distinguish in formality, using come for any formal usage and cum only in slang, erotic or pornographic contexts.

Derived terms

Preposition

come

  1. Used to indicate a point in time at or after which a stated event or situation occurs.
    Leave it to settle for about three months and, come Christmas time, you'll have a delicious concoction to offer your guests.
    Come retirement, their Social Security may turn out to be a lot less than they counted on.
    Come summer, we would all head off to the coast.
    • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 14:
      "And a long sea voyage that starts at six o'clock come morning."
    • 2012 November 10, Amy Lawrence, “Fulham's Mark Schwarzer saves late penalty in dramatic draw at Arsenal”, in The Guardian‎:
      Come the final whistle, Mikel Arteta lay flabbergasted on the turf.
    • 2022 October 5, Beatriz Colon, “Celine Dion ushers in holiday season with exciting music news”, in Hello! Magazine‎:
      She announced in April that come 10 February 2023, her songs would be featured in a romantic comedy titled It's All Coming Back To Me […]
Usage notes
  • Came is sometimes used instead when the events occurred in the past.

Interjection

come

  2. (dated or formal) An exclamation to express annoyance.
    Come come! Stop crying.
    Come now! You must eat it.
  3. (dated or formal) An exclamation to express encouragement, or to precede a request.
    Come come! You can do it.
    Come now! It won't bite you.
    • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      Her. What wisdome stirs amongst you? Come Sir, now
      I am for you againe: 'Pray you sit by vs,
      And tell's a Tale.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XVIII, page 30:
      Come then, pure hands, and bear the head
      ⁠That sleeps or wears the mask of sleep,
      ⁠And come, whatever loves to weep,
      And hear the ritual of the dead.
    • 1908, W B M Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

Etymology 2

See comma.

Noun

come (plural comes)

  2. (typography, obsolete) Alternative form of comma in its medieval use as a middot ⟨·⟩ serving as a form of colon.
    • 1824, J. Johnson, Typographia:
      There be five manner of points and divisions most used among cunning men; the which if they be well used, make the sentence very light and easy to be understood, both to the reader and hearer: and they be these, virgil,—come,—parenthesis,—plain point,—interrogative.
    • 1842, F. Francillon, An Essay on Punctuation‎, page 9:
      Whoever introduced the several points, it seems that a full-point, a point called come, answering to our colon-point, a point called virgil answering to our comma-point, the parenthesis-points and interrogative-point, were used at the close of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century.

References

  1. ^ Chicago Dialect
  2. ^ Glossophilia
  3. ^ Glossophilia

See also

Anagrams

Asturian

Verb

come

  1. third-person singular present indicative of comer

Galician

Verb

come

  1. inflection of comer:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Italian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *quōmō (from Latin quōmodō) + et. Cognate to French comme. See also Spanish como/cómo and Catalan com.

Pronunciation

  • (how) IPA(key): /ˈko.me/, (traditional) /ˈko.me/*
  • (like) IPA(key): /ˈko.me/*
  • Rhymes: -ome
  • Hyphenation: có‧me

Adverb

come

  1. how
    Come stai? ― How are you? (informal)
    Come sta? ― How are you? (formal)
  2. as, like
    blu come il mare ― as blue as the sea
  3. such as

Derived terms

Conjunction

come

  1. as soon as
    come arrivò… ― as soon as he arrived…

Derived terms

Further reading

  • come in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
  • come in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Anagrams

Japanese

Alternative forms

Romanization

come

  1. Rōmaji transcription of コメ

Latin

Pronunciation

Adjective

cōme

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of cōmis

References

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English cyme, from Proto-Germanic *kumiz.

Noun

come (plural comes)

  1. arrival, coming
Alternative forms
Descendants

References

Etymology 2

From Old English cuma, from cuman (“to come”).

Noun

come (plural comes)

  1. guest, stranger

References

Etymology 3

Noun

come (plural comes)

  1. Alternative form of coumb

Etymology 4

Noun

come (plural comes)

  1. Alternative form of comb

Old French

Etymology

From Latin coma.

Noun

come oblique singular, f (oblique plural comes, nominative singular come, nominative plural comes)

  1. head of hair, mane

Descendants

References

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

  • Hyphenation: co‧me

Verb

come

  1. inflection of comer:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkome/
  • Rhymes: -ome
  • Syllabification: co‧me

Verb

come

  1. inflection of comer:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Yola

Verb

come

  1. Alternative form of coome
    • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:
      Come adh o' mee gazb.
      Come out of my breath.
    • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 14, page 90:
      Come w' ouse, gosp Learry, theezil an Melchere;
      Come with us, gossip Larry, yourself and Miles;
    • 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 1, page 102:
      Ye nyporès aul, come hark to mee,
      Ye neighbours all, come hark to me,

References

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 41
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