come

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

English[edit]

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 come on Wikipedia

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English comen, cumen, from Old English cuman, from Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”), from Proto-Indo-European *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[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /kʌm/, [kʰɐm], enPR: kŭm
  • Audio (UK)
    		(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /kʌm/, [kʰʌm], enPR: kŭm
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)

There is also an occasional weak form kəm. See c’mon.

Verb[edit]

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 1016700617, 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 222716698:
      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[1], 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, vulgar, slang) To achieve orgasm; to cum; to ejaculate.
    • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, in The Line of Beauty, New York: Bloomsbury, OCLC 1036692193:
      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.
  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.
  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) Happen.
    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, Kate Roberts, University of Wales Press, →ISBN, chapter 3, 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.
Usage notes[edit]

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? [sä ðuː bɪst cʊmn̩ hiər tə nɪm miːn ɔːrs frə miː | d̪ɛn] (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 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.[1] This objectless use is not permissible in other dialects.

The meaning of to ejaculate 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.[2]

In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb come had the form comest, and had camest for its past tense. Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form cometh was used.

Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Conjugation[edit]
conjugation of come
infinitive come
present participle coming
past participle come
simple progressive perfect perfect progressive
present I come we come I am coming we are coming I have come we have come I have been coming we have been coming
you come you come you are coming you are coming you have come you have come you have been coming you have been coming
he comes they come he is coming they are coming he has come they have come he has been coming they have been coming
past I came we came I was coming we were coming I had come we had come I had been coming we had been coming
you came you came you were coming you were coming you had come you had come you had been coming you had been coming
he came they came he was coming they were coming he had come they had come he had been coming they had been coming
future I will come we will come I will be coming we will be coming I will have come we will have come I will have been coming we will have been coming
you will come you will come you will be coming you will be coming you will have come you will have come you will have been coming you will have been coming
he will come they will come he will be coming they will be coming he will have come they will have come he will have been coming they will have been coming
conditional I would come we would come I would be coming we would be coming I would have come we would have come I would have been coming we would have been coming
you would come you would come you would be coming you would be coming you would have come you would have come you would have been coming you would have been coming
he would come they would come he would be coming they would be coming he would have come they would have come he would have been coming they would have been coming
imperative come
Translations[edit]
See also[edit]

Noun[edit]

come (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) coming, arrival; approach.
    • 1869, RD Blackmoore, Lorna Doone, II:
      “If we count three before the come of thee, thwacked thou art, and must go to the women.”
  2. (vulgar, slang) semen
  3. (vulgar, slang) Female ejaculatory discharge.
Usage notes[edit]

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.[3]

Derived terms[edit]

Preposition[edit]

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[2]:
      Come the final whistle, Mikel Arteta lay flabbergasted on the turf.
Usage notes[edit]
  • Came is sometimes used instead when the events occurred in the past.

Interjection[edit]

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.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:
      “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[edit]

See comma.

Noun[edit]

come (plural comes)

  2. (typography, obsolete) Alternative form of comma in its medieval use as a middot ⟨·⟩ serving as a form of colon.

References[edit]

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

Anagrams[edit]

Asturian[edit]

Verb[edit]

come

  1. third-person singular present indicative of comer

Galician[edit]

Verb[edit]

come

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

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈko.me/*, /ˈko.me/
  • Audio
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ome
  • Hyphenation: có‧me

Adverb[edit]

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[edit]

Conjunction[edit]

come

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

Derived terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

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

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

cōme

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of cōmis

References[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

come (plural comes)

  1. arrival, coming
Alternative forms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
  • English: come (obsolete)
  • Scots: come

References[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

come (plural comes)

  1. guest, stranger

References[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Noun[edit]

come (plural comes)

  1. Alternative form of coumb

Etymology 4[edit]

Noun[edit]

come (plural comes)

  1. Alternative form of comb

Portuguese[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): (Brazil) /ˈkõ.mi/, [ˈkõ.mi]
  • IPA(key): (Portugal) /ˈko.mɨ/, [ˈko.mɨ]

  • Hyphenation: co‧me

Verb[edit]

come

  1. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present indicative of comer
  2. second-person singular (tu, sometimes used with você) affirmative imperative of comer

Spanish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

come

  1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of comer.
  2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of comer.
  3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present indicative form of comer.
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