Etymology: < to- prefix¹ + come n.¹, probably after tocome v.Compare Old High German zuoquemī , zuoquumī meeting, assembly (with different gender and stem class: feminine īn -stem). Compare also post-classical Latin adventus advent n., which this word often translates.

Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian tōkuma (West Frisian takomme ), Middle Dutch toecomen (Dutch toekomen ), Middle Low German tokomen , Old High German zuoqueman , zuokoman (Middle High German zuokomen , German zukommen ), recorded in senses including ‘to come, arrive, to approach, to attack, to take legal action, to come into possession, to adjoin, to be equal, to appear, to happen, to be due to happen, to be due, to befall, to cope, to accomplish, to die’ < the Germanic base of to- prefix¹ + the Germanic base of come v.Ambiguity of forms. In Old English the verb frequently translates prefixed forms of classical Latin venīre to come; in other contexts it is sometimes difficult to distinguish from collocations of come v. with to adv. and to prep. (compare to come to at come v. Phrasal verbs 1, to come to —— at come v. Phrasal verbs 2). In Northumbrian the present participle tōcymende is attested as a translation of post-classical Latin uses of the future participles futūrus and ventūrus , apparently both in verbal and adjectival use (compare quots. OE at sense 2a, OE¹, OE² at tocoming adj.). Similar use is found in the Wycliffite Bible (compare quots. c1384¹, c1384², a1425¹ at sense 2a), although the status of the construction in Middle English is more problematic. Because of the occasional phonological development of homonymous forms of (i) the present participle (Old English -ende , Middle English also -ing(e) ), (ii) the verbal noun (Old English -ing , Middle English -ing(e) ), and (iii) the inflected infinitive (Old English -enne , -anne , later also -ende , earlier Middle English -en(n)e , also -ende ; compare e.g. note at do v. Forms 1b), it can be difficult to distinguish the use of Middle English present participles like tocomende , tocoming with reference to future events (especially when postposed after the noun or in predicative use after forms of be v.) either from uses of to comende and even to coming as variant forms of the infinitive of come v. (which was inflected after to prep. in such uses in Old English and earlier Middle English; compare come v. 33a and also to-come n.²) or from uses of coming n. (following to prep.), in both cases probably at least partly modelled on uses of the future participle in classical and post-classical Latin. Analysis of Middle English forms like to comende , to coming as showing to prep. (and thus belonging at come v. or coming n.) is suggested by the fact that the construction is also found, especially in the Early Version of the Wycliffite Bible, for other verbs beside come v. However, it has conversely been suggested that uses of the present participle of tocome v. themselves could have reinforced the type as a model for the other verbs, after the assumed reanalysis. For a recent discussion see D. G. Miller Nonfinite Structures in Theory & Change (2002) 354–9. Apparent early Middle English instances of the construction are likely to be showing the inflected infinitive of come v. With quots. c1300 at sense 2a and c1300¹ at sense 2b, compare the following instances of the inflected infinitive from the same text:c1300 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Otho) (1963) l. 7999 Hii bi-tokcneþ kinges þat ȝet beoþ to comene [c1275 Calig. to cumene].c1300 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Otho) (1963) l. 8003 And of þine wowe þat þe his to comene [c1275 Calig. to cumene].