Numb
adjectiveLacking the ability to feel sensation, especially through cold, injury, or shock.
How to spell numb
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce numb
What does numb mean?
- adjectiveLacking the ability to feel sensation, especially through cold, injury, or shock.
- verbTo deprive something of feeling or sensation.
Numb in a sentence
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adjective
After an hour in the snow her fingers were completely numb.
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verb
The cold water began to numb his hands within minutes.
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adjective
The dentist gave him an injection that left his jaw numb for the afternoon.
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verb
Strong painkillers can numb the discomfort after surgery.
Where does numb come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Numb traces back to the Old English verb niman, which meant 'to take, seize, or grasp', and its past participle nomen meant 'taken' or 'seized'. In Middle English the form 'nome' came to describe a body part that had been 'seized' or 'taken hold of' by cold or paralysis, so that it could no longer feel; the underlying idea was that the limb had been 'taken away' from sensation. The spelling later picked up an unetymological silent 'b' during the period when English clerks were fond of adding such letters to words ending in 'm', much as 'thumb', 'crumb', and 'limb' did, even though that 'b' was never pronounced. The same niman root survives in the German nehmen, 'to take', and is buried in old words like 'nimble' and 'nim'. That parasitic final 'b', which the ear never hears, is exactly what makes the word a quiet spelling trap.
How the word is built
- numb (silent b; from Old English niman, to take or seize, via the past participle nomen meaning 'seized' or 'taken with cold')
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