Forms: 1 kymen, cymen, -yn, 2 cumin(ü), 4–7 comyn, -e, 5–6 cummyn, 5–7 comen, 6 comeyn, commine, -men, -myn, 7 comin(e, cum(m)ine, 7–9 commin, (8–9 cumming), 6– cum(m)in. [OE. cymen (:—cumin), a. L. cumīn-um (cym-), a. Gr. κύμῑνον. Cf. OHG. chumin, cumin, also chumil (MHG. kümel, Ger. kümmel), Sw. kummin, Da. kummen. The word has also come down in the Romanic langs., It. cumino, comino, Sp., Pg. comino, OF. cumin, comin. ME. cumin, comin was either from Fr. (like MDu. comijn, Du. komijn), or altered from OE. cymen after Fr. The Gr. κύμῑνον is supposed to have been a foreign word, cognate in origin with the Semitic names, Heb. kammôn, Arab. kammûn, and their cognates.]
1. An umbelliferous plant (Cummin Cyminum) resembling fennel: cultivated in the Levant for its fruit or seed, which possesses aromatic and carminative qualities; also called Common, Garden, or Roman cumin.
Oil of cumin: the essential oil of cumin seed, consisting of three hydrocarbons, cymene, cymol and cuminol.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., lvii. 439. Ȝe tioʓoðiað eowre mintan & eowerne dile & eowerne kymen.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxiii. 23. Cymen v.r. cymyn; 1160 Hatton Gosp. cumin].
c. 1300. K. Alis., 6797. Gynger, comyn gaven odour grace.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xxviii. 25. He shal sowe the sed gith, and the comyn sprengen.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxxviii. (1495), 625. Comyn … is a seed wyth good smell and wyth pale colour.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 8. Fors hit with galyngale and gode gyngere, With canel and comyn alle in fere.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 89. Comyn, seede (Ciminum, P.).
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 5 b. Commen stiped in vinegre.
1736. Bailey, Houshold Dict., 228. Cummin is accounted good for the stomach.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Sphinx, Wks. (Bohn), I. 398. Rue, myrrh, and cummin for the Sphinx—Her muddy eyes to clear.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, xi. 309. The Pharisees, for lack of this gift, gave tithes of mint, anise, and cummin.
b. fig. in allusion to Matt. xxiii. 23.
1741–1841. [see ANISE 2].
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind, xiv. § 8 (1801), 111. The mint, anise and cumming, the gestures and vestures and fringes of religion.
1892. Edin. Rev., April, 419. The anise and cummin of a great archæological question, passed, as it were, through the Homeric sieve.
2. With qualifications applied to other plants: as, Armenian or Mountain Cumin, the Caraway, Carum Carui; Black Cumin, a ranunculaceous plant, Nigella sativa, cultivated in Eastern countries for its black, acrid and aromatic seeds; Royal Cumin, Ammi or Bishop’s-weed; Sweet Cumin, the Anise, Pimpinella Anisum; Wild Cumin, (a) the wild variety of cumin; † (b.) the wild Nigella; (c) an umbelliferous plant, Lagœcia cuminoides.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. xciv. 274. The wilde Comyn … hath a brittle stalke.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. Table of Hard Words, Ameos, Comin royal, is a Herb of some called Bulwort, Bishops-weed, or Herb-william.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 3. Ethiopian-Cummin is a Plant which has Leaves like Dill.
1885. Bible (R. V.), Isa. xxviii. 25. Doth the plowman … not cast abroad the fitches [marg. black cummin (Nigella sativa)].
3. attrib. and Comb., as cumin cheese, oil, seed, etc.; cumin-splitting a., skin-flint, niggardly [cf. L. cuminisector, Gr. κυμινο-πρίστης].
1530. Palsgr., 207/1. Commyn sede, comyn.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. vii. 35. A carver or divider of Comine seed which is one of the least seedes.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 96. His wife is the Cummin seed of his Dove-house.
a. 1628. F. Greville, Sidney (1652), 122. Like a true cutter of Cumine seeds.
1754. J. Gillies, Hist. Coll., I. 406. Twenty-eight cumin cheeses were forthwith to be sent us from Leyden in Holland.
1822. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., II. 304. A sneaking, pitiful, cummin-splitting fellow.
1866. Treas. Bot., 360/1. The cumin seeds or fruits are the produce of Cuminum Cyminum.
1873. Watts, Fownes’ Chem., 767. A hydrocarbon, called cumene … exists ready-formed in Roman cumin-oil.
