Sc. and north. dial. Also tawm, towm, toum, tome, tom, tam, etc. (a. ON. taumr a cord, rein, line, etc., in Norw. taum string, line, e.g., on a fishing-rod (Aasen), in Færoese teymur (ey = ON. au) a short string at the end of a fishing line to which the hook is secured. Cognate with OE. téam line, team, OHG. zoum, Ger. zaum, OS. tôm, Du. toom rein, bridle: see TEAM sb.] A fishing-line, usually one of horse-hair twisted. Locally, also, a string of other kinds (E. D. D.).

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a. 1733.  Shetland Acts, 11, in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. (1892), XXVI. 198. All lines and tomes made of horse-hair.

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1802.  Sibbald, Chron. Scot. Poetry, Gloss., Towm.

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1818.  Hogg, Brownie of Bodsb., etc. I. ix. 158. [He] cleekit a hantle o’ geds and perches [out of the loch] with his toum.

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1825.  Brockett, N. C. Words, Tawm, Tam, a fishing line. ‘A lang twine tam.’

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1828.  Craven Gloss., Taum, a fishing line.

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1851.  Cumbld. Gloss., Tome, a hair line for fishing.

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1855.  Robinson, Whitby Gloss., A Tawm, a fishing line and rod. ‘A fishing tawm.’

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1904.  Daily Chron., 19 Feb., 3/2. When a Scotch fisherman speaks of his line as a ‘taum,’ he makes rather a fine use of the Old Norse word for ‘bridle.’

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