arch. and dial. Forms: 3 cume-, kume-, kymeling, komelyng, (? kemeling, -lyng), komlyng, 4–5 cumling, -lyng, 4 cumbling, cumlyne, 4–5 comlyng(e, -ling, (commelyng, -ling), comelyng(e, 4– comeling. [OE. *cumeling, f. cuman to COME + -LING; cf. OHG. chomeling, mod.G. kömmling, in an-, empor-, nachkömmling, etc.]
One who has come to a place, as distinguished from its permanent residents; an immigrant, newcomer, stranger, sojourner; also (obs.) a novice.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 834. Neȝ ilc burȝe hadde ise louereding, Sum was king, and sum kumeling.
1274. Rotuli Hundred. (1818), II. 118 a. Capit et retinet averia de astraura [= estray] quae dicunt wayf vel cumeling.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 25. Þou hast now forsake My doȝter … & to a kemeling take.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1385. I am a commelyng towarde þe, And pilgrym, als alle my faders was.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, Petrus, 649. He wes bot a cumlyne.
1382. Wyclif, Eph. ii. 19. Now ȝe ben not herborid men and gestis (or comelingis) but ȝe ben citeseyns.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 161. Þe langage of Normandie is comlynge of anoþer londe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 89. Comelynge, new cum man or woman.
1577–87. Harrison, Descr. Brit., in Holished, iv. 6. These new comlings began to molest the homelings.
1815. Southey, Lett. (1856), II. 401–2. To hear … that the new comeling had proved to be of the more worthy gender.
1862. Marsh, Orig. Hist. Eng. Lang., 139. A settled animosity between the home-born and the comeling.
attrib. 1382. Wyclif, Wisd. xix. 10. In the comeling wonyng of hem [1388 dwellyng among Egipcians].
1587. Harrison, England, II. ix. (1877), I. 189. The comeling Saxons.
b. (See quot.) dial.
1808. Jamieson, Cumlin, any animal that attaches itself to a person or place of its own accord.
Hence † Comelingness, state of a sojourner.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xx. 38. I shal lede out hem fro the loond of her cumlyngnes [1388 dwelling].
