combo

See also: combó

English

Etymology

Clipping of combination +‎ -o

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmbəʊ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

combo (plural combos or comboes)

1. A small musical group.

   The jazz combo played nightly at the little restaurant.

2. (slang) A combination.

   I need to open the safe but I forgot the combo.

   I order the low priced combo platter: a taco, a burrito and a chimichanga.

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

     As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard. The train is a '221'+'220' combo to allow for social distancing - a luxury on an XC train as normally you're playing sardines, so I make the most of it.

3. (gaming) Effective combination of gameplay elements.
   1. (video games) An action composed of a sequence of simpler actions, especially a composite attacking move in a fighting game.
      • 2002, Andy Slaven, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002:

        Obviously, this is something not seen very often, with super flashy, combo-driven fighters dominating store shelves everywhere.

   2. Two or more gameplay elements (e.g. characters, items) which are powerful when used together.
      • 2019, RyuSora, “OP Combo”, in Board Game Geek‎^[1]:

        Tm have several OP combos, i think ecology expert with kelp algea^[sic] is stronger than fish combo IMO.

   3. (especially collectible card games) A strategy aiming to win by playing a specific combination of cards (or similar), often in a single turn.
      • 1999, Steven Merritt, “[ISSUE] An alternative to Banning, increase minimum deck size”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy‎^[2] (Usenet):

        Personally I'd like to see an environment where all the major archetypes, control, beatdown, and combo are viable.

      • 1999, michele oasheim, “The Funnest Combo Decks”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy‎^[3] (Usenet):

        Whenever I play (I play D&D alot^[sic] too) I always play combo.

4. (Australia, derogatory) A Caucasian man who marries or has a sexual relationship with an Aboriginal woman, or who lives among Aboriginal people and adopts Aboriginal culture.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VII, in Capricornia‎^[4], pages 107–8:

     " […] Look at Ganger O'Cannon of Black Adder Creek, with his halfcaste wife and quadroon kids, a down-right family man—yet looked on as as much a combo as if he lived in a blacks' camp. Isn't that so? […] The casual comboes are respected, while men like O'Cannon and myself, who rear their kids, are utterly despised. […] "

   • 1993, Journal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, p. 97, [5]

     If he sides with the Aborigines against their employers and exploiters, he may be called a ' combo ', and yet he may not achieve popularity with the Aborigines.

   • 1996, Jeremy MacClancy, Chris McDonaugh, editors, Popularizing Anthropology‎^[6], London and New York: Routledge, page 167:

     Many passages in Harney's books are written from the point of view of what he refers to as the ' combo '; a white man who has sexual relations with Aboriginal women. The combo is seen as an anarchic, egalitarian figure whose enjoyment of life largely comes through his pursuit of Aboriginal women.

5. (graphical user interface, informal) A combo box.
   • 2000, Marcia Akins, Andy Kramek, Rick Schummer, 1001 Things You Wanted to Know about Visual FoxPro, page 127:

     Combos and lists are two very powerful controls that allow the user to select from a predetermined set of values.

Derived terms

• comboable
• combo box
• combo breaker
• comboscore
• combo skin
• combozine
• full combo
• go combo
• popular beat combo
• wombo combo

 

Descendants

• → Portuguese: combo

Translations

small musical group

• German: Combo (de) f

combination

• Greek: συνδυασμός (el) (syndyasmós)
• Hungarian: kombó
• Swedish: kombination (sv) c, kombo (sv) c

sequence of simpler actions

• Finnish: kombo (fi)
• Norwegian:

  Nynorsk: kombo m

• Swedish: kombination (sv) c, kombo (sv) c
• Turkish: kombo

Verb

combo (third-person singular simple present combos, present participle comboing, simple past and past participle comboed)

1. (slang, transitive) To combine.
2. (video games, transitive) To perform a combo attack on.

References

• Combo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• coomb

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English combo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔm.boː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧bo

Noun

combo m (plural combo's)

1. (music) combo (small musical group)
2. (video games) combo (composite move)

Related terms

• combinatie

Galician

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese combo (“bent, curved”) (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria). Ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kumbā (compare Welsh cwm and Irish com).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkombʊ]

Adjective

combo (feminine comba, masculine plural combos, feminine plural combas)

1. curved, bent

Derived terms

• Cabanacomba (literally “bent cabin”), a hamlet name

Related terms

• combar

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “combo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “cunb”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “combo”, 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), “combo”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Etymology 2

Verb

combo

1. first-person singular present indicative of combar

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English combo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkom.bo/
• Rhymes: -ombo
• Hyphenation: cóm‧bo

Noun

combo m (plural combos or invariable)

1. (slang) combo, especially:
   1. photomontage
   2. small jazz ensemble

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkõ.bu/

• Rhymes: -õbu
• Hyphenation: com‧bo

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Middle English combinacioun

English combination

English -o

English combobor.

Portuguese combo

Borrowed from English combo.

Noun

combo m (plural combos)

1. combo (a combination)
2. (video games) combo (action composed of a sequence of simpler actions)
3. (video games) combo (two or more gameplay elements which are powerful when used together)

Related terms

• combar
• combinação

 

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish combo.

Adjective

combo (feminine comba, masculine plural combos, feminine plural combas)

1. concave

   Synonym: côncavo

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Tsonga khombo.

Noun

combo m (plural combos)

1. (Mozambique) disaster, danger

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

combo

1. first-person singular present indicative of combar

Further reading

• “combo”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2024
• “combo”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkombo/ [ˈkõm.bo]
• Rhymes: -ombo
• Syllabification: com‧bo

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Quechua kumpa.

Noun

combo m (plural combos)

1. (Latin America) gavel, wooden hammer

   Synonym: mazo

2. (Bolivia, Chile, Peru) punch

   Synonyms: puñetazo, puñete

Etymology 2

Verb

combo

1. first-person singular present indicative of combar

Further reading

• “combo”, 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