cuman

come or arrive

Forms

cuman
come — The modern form.
came — A changed-vowel past form.

Origin

An ancient Indo-European movement verb inherited through Germanic.

Note

Coming is defined relative to a destination or viewpoint, not a particular manner of travel.

1 / 1

A climber reaches the top of a steep wall after passing the final obstacle, while the rope and scraped knees show the difficulty they defeated.

verb

overcome

oh-ver-KUHM/ˌəʊvərˈkʌm/

To defeat or gain mastery over someone or something.

Etymology

overOld Englishover, above, or beyond

+comeOld Englishcome or arrive

The combination of ofer and cuman expressed reaching or passing over, and already also meant conquering. Its later application to difficulties treats successful action as surmounting an obstacle.

Full entry

Related word entries

overcome