Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Around; about; after. [Obsolete except in dialectal use in composition.]

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • preposition obsolete About.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • preposition dialectal Around, about; after.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English umbe, embe, from Old English ymbe ("around, about"), from Proto-Germanic *umbi (“around, about, by, near”), from Proto-Indo-European *ambʰi (“by, around”). Cognate with West Frisian om ("around"), Dutch om ("around"), German um ("around"), Danish om ("around, about"), Icelandic umb, um ("around"), Latin amb- ("around, about"), Latin ambi- ("both"), Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí-, "around, about"), Sanskrit अभि (abhi, "against, about").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word umbe.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • It can be used alone ... umbe ... or as a prefix ... um ... umwelt (environment), umbeset (surround), umbecast (cast around), umthink (bethink, meditate, consider), umbethink (consider), umgang (circuit)

    September 27, 2011