† comeln.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps (i) the reflex of Old English cumbol banner, standard, image used as an object of worship (only in poetry), cognate with Old Saxon kumbl, kumbal sign, Old High German kumbal- (in kumbalboro standard-bearer), of unknown origin (for cognates in Scandinavian languages see below); or perhaps (ii) < its early Scandinavian cognate: compare early Scandinavian (runic: Sweden and Denmark) kumbl, kuml, kubl monument, cairn, Old Icelandic kuml, kumbl sign, badge, (more commonly) monument, cairn, Norwegian (Nynorsk) kuml, kumle lump, clot, Old Swedish kumbel sign, mark (Swedish (regional) kummel, kumbel beacon). The semantic development may have been (in a prepositional phrase) from ‘under banners’ to ‘in battle array’ to ‘with an army’ to ‘in a camp’, ‘in a tent’, in which case the meanings of the Old English word are in favour of development within English, although the word's form would point rather to borrowing from early Scandinavian. It is possible that neither is the case, and the word shows an entirely different (unknown) origin.Compare also Old English cumul , cuml , cumbl ‘swelling’ and Old Icelandic örkuml , örkumbl lasting scar, maiming (compare or- prefix). Although forms attested in various Germanic languages in the senses ‘sign, mark’, ‘monument, cairn’, and ‘lump’, ‘swelling’ appear to go back to the same Germanic base, in the absence of a secure further etymology it is uncertain which of those senses was primary, or whether the assumption about the identity of the words at the Germanic level is correct. It seems less likely that this word shows a borrowing of Anglo-Norman cumble , comble roof, ceiling (from 12th cent.), Old French comble top part, (specifically) top part of a building, roof support (12th cent.; see comble n.), which show semantic similarity to this word but are apparently not attested without -b-.