cumber

Etymology 1
From, borrowed from the second element of , ultimately from , from. Cognate with 🇨🇬.

Verb

 * 1)  To slow down; to hinder; to burden; to encumber.
 * 2) * 1886, Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel. Pub.: Adams & Charles Black, Edinburgh; page 321:
 * the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall not cumber the earth long after him.
 * 1) * 1886, Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel. Pub.: Adams & Charles Black, Edinburgh; page 321:
 * the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall not cumber the earth long after him.
 * the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall not cumber the earth long after him.

Synonyms

 * See also Thesaurus:hinder
 * See also Thesaurus:hinder

Translations

 * Bulgarian: ,
 * French:

Etymology 2
From,. According to the  (1st edition, 1893; entry not updated yet), used early in the 14th century in the very scarcely attested “destruction” sense, but not common till the 16th century, and then at first chiefly 🇨🇬, where it is also spelt. It states that the date, form, and sense, are all consistent with its being either a derivative of the verb (Etymology 1) or a shortened form of, , , from , but that the sense “trouble, distress” strikingly coincides with , , , and , additionally providing the following note: "OF. had only combre fem. in the sense ‘heap of felled trees, stones, or the like’ (Godef.), corresponding to med.L. combra ‘a mound or mole in a river for the sake of catching fish’ (Du Cange), and akin to Merovingian L. cumbrus, pl. cumbri, combri ‘barriers of felled trees’ (Du C.), whence med.L. incumbrāre, F. encombrer, to . Cf. also Pg. combro ‘a heap of earth’. In the Meroving. L. cumbrus, Diez (s.v. Colmo saw a barbaric form, through *cumblus, of L. cumulus heap: so also Littré, Scheler, Brachet, s.v. Encombre. But the question of the actual origin of cumbrus, and its relation to the Ger. kummer and its family, is a difficult one, which has been much investigated and discussed: see Grimm, Kluge, Franck, Doornkaat-Koolmann." The  on the other hand does not provide an origin for the noun, only comparing the noun.

Noun

 * 1)  Trouble, distress.
 * 2) Something that encumbers; a hindrance, a burden.
 * 1) Something that encumbers; a hindrance, a burden.