colmo

See also: colmó and colmò

Galician

a Galician palloza house, with thatched roof (teito de colmo)

Etymology 1

13th century. Probably from Latin culmus (“thatch”), although the open stressed vowel found in some regions and the derived term colmea (“beehive”) suggest the influence of a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia *kŏlmos; ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱolh₂mos. Cognate with Asturian cuelmu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔlmo̝/, /ˈkolmo̝/

Noun

colmo m (plural colmos)

1. thatch (usually the stalks of rye and wheat)
   • 1408, José Luis Novo Cazón, editor, El priorato santiaguista de Vilar de Donas en la Edad Media (1194-1500), A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 318:

     que façades a dicta metade da dicta casa de pedra e de madeyra e de giestas e de colmo

     you should build that half house with stone and wood and brooms and thatch

2. a sheaf (of straw)
3. a thatched roof

Derived terms

• colma
• colmar (“to thatch”)
• colmazo
• colmea (“beehive”)
• escolmar

Adjective

colmo (feminine colma, masculine plural colmos, feminine plural colmas)

1. spiky (when referred to the hair)

   Synonyms: colmaceiro, colmeiro

References

• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “colmo”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “colmo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “colmo”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “colmo”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Etymology 2

Verb

colmo

1. first-person singular present indicative of colmar

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkol.mo/
• Rhymes: -olmo
• Hyphenation: cól‧mo

Etymology 1

From the short past participle of colmare (“to fill”) in Tuscan; compare the Standard Italian participle colmato.

Adjective

colmo (feminine colma, masculine plural colmi, feminine plural colme) (di)

1. full (of)

Etymology 2

From Latin culmen, from Proto-Italic *kolamen, from Proto-Indo-European *kelH-. Possibly influenced by cumulus or culmus phonetically. Compare Spanish colmo. Doublet of the borrowed culmine.

Noun

colmo m (plural colmi)

1. summit, top, acme
2. height
3. limit
4. ridge

Verb

colmo

1. first-person singular present indicative of colmare

Related terms

• colmare
• culminare

Further reading

• Ledgeway, Adam. 2016. Italian, Tuscan, and Corsican. In Ledgeway, Adam & Maiden, Martin (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Romance languages, 206–227. Oxford: OUP.

Anagrams

• Moloc, moloc

Portuguese

Etymology 1

From Latin culmus, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱolh₂mos.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkow.mu/ [ˈkoʊ̯.mu]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkow.mu/ [ˈkoʊ̯.mu]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkow.mo/ [ˈkoʊ̯.mo]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkol.mu/ [ˈkoɫ.mu]

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -olmu, (Brazil) -owmu
• Hyphenation: col‧mo

Noun

colmo m (plural colmos)

1. (uncountable) cane (slender flexible stem of plants such as bamboo)
2. (countable, botany) reed (hollow stem)

   Synonym: cana

3. thatch (straw for covering roofs or stacks)

Related terms

• colmeia

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔw.mu/ [ˈkɔʊ̯.mu]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔw.mu/ [ˈkɔʊ̯.mu]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔw.mo/ [ˈkɔʊ̯.mo]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔl.mu/ [ˈkɔɫ.mu]

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -ɔlmu, (Brazil) -ɔwmu
• Hyphenation: col‧mo

Verb

colmo

1. first-person singular present indicative of colmar

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkolmo/ [ˈkol.mo]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -olmo
• Syllabification: col‧mo

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Spanish colmo, from Latin cumulus, following metathesis and syncopation, according to Ralph Penny and the Royal Spanish Academy, cf. tolmo from Latin tumulus. Doublet of cúmulo. The phonetically-similar Latin culmen survived as cumbre.

Noun

colmo m (plural colmos)

1. summit, top
2. height
3. the extreme of a situation

   Esto es el colmo. ¡Me largo!

   This is too much. I'm gone!

   Ya has llegado al colmo con tu actitud.

   You've already crossed the line with your attitude.

   para colmo (de males) ― to cap/top it all

   Y para colmo de males, no nos han pagado en dos meses tampoco.

   And to make it worse, they haven't paid us for two months either.

Derived terms

• para colmo

 

Related terms

• colmar
• cúmulo

 

See also

• culminar
• culminación
• cumbre

Adjective

colmo (feminine colma, masculine plural colmos, feminine plural colmas)

1. heaping, protruding at the top

   fanega colma ― protruding bushel

Etymology 2

Inherited from Latin culmus.

Noun

colmo m (plural colmos)

1. thatch
2. thatched roof

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

colmo

1. first-person singular present indicative of colmar

Further reading

• “colmo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10