Sc. Forms: 4 commare, 6 cummar, comere, 7 comer, 6– cummer, 8– kimmer. [a. F. commère (= Pr. comaire, Sp. and It. comadre):—late L. commāter (Laws of Lombards), f. com- together with + māter mother.]
1. A godmother, in her relationship to the other god-parents and the parents of the child; a commother.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 986. Þou man or womman, be nat so wylde To holde to þe bysshope þyn owne chylde, For ȝyf þou do, þou art commare To hym þat hyt gat or bare.
1566. in Diurnal of Occurrents (1833), 102. To nominat ane woman in Scotland to be cummar to our soueranis to the bapteising of our prince thair sone.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1792), II. 105 (Jam.). An honest burgess of Aberdeen, caused bring to the kirk a bairn … to be baptized … and conveened his gossips and comers, as the custom is.
1730. in Chambers, Dom. Ann. Scot., III. 572. Towards the end of the week, all the friends are asked to what was called the Cummers’ Feast.
2. A female companion or intimate; a gossip.
1500–20. Dunbar, Rycht Airlie on Ask Weddinsday, 2. Drynkand the wyne satt cumeris tway. Ibid., 11. ‘My fair, sweit cummer’ quod the tuder.
1644. Baillie, in Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), Introd. 34. I thank my cummer your wife heartily.
1658. R. Franck, in A. McKay, Hist. Kilmarnock, 7. Their wives are sociable comers.
1790. Scots Songs, II. 7. My kimmer and I lay down to sleep.
1820. Scott, Monast., viii. A special cummer of my ain.
3. A woman, a female; familiarly applied, like ‘fellow’ to a man. With various local specific applications, e.g., young woman, lass, girl, witch, wise-woman, midwife, etc.
17[?]. Humble Beggar, in Herd, Collect. (1776), II. 29 (Jam.). Vow, kimmer, and how do ye?
1745. Song, What’s a’ the steer, kimmer?
1785. Burns, 2nd Ep. to Lapraik, x. Fortune … the kittle kimmer.
1806. Train, Poetical Reveries, 89 (Jam.). She in travail was … No kindly kimmer nigh there was To mitigate her pain.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxiii. ‘That’s a fresh and full-grown hemlock … mony a cummer lang syne wad hae sought nae better horse to flee … through mist and moonlight.’
1821. Blackw. Mag., Jan., 402 (Jam.). It’s a bonnie sight to see so mony stark youths and strapping kimmers streaking themselves sae eydently to the harvest darke.
1875. F. I. Scudamore, Day Dreams, 13. In presence of the good cummers of Newhaven.
