Comb

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /kəʊm/

Definitions

1. An object used for styling or detangling hair, a device that systematically arranges or separates threads, and an approach to methodically search for or extract particular items are all encapsulated here
2. A tool with teeth designed to untangle or style hair ; a mechanism that aligns or separates strands in textiles or materials ; a technique used to carefully search through data or objects to find specific elements
3. An instrument used to smooth or detangle locks of hair ; a device that arranges fibers or threads in order ; an approach involving systematic investigation or selection to isolate certain items

Etymology: The tool you run through your hair began life as a tooth. Old English "camb" descends from a Proto-Germanic word, "*kambaz", whose ancestor in Proto-Indo-European meant "tooth". The idea was simple: a comb is a row of teeth set in a back or spine. The same root survives across the Germanic languages in German "Kamm", Swedish and Dutch "kam", and Danish "kam", and it reaches much further afield, with cognates in Albanian "dhëmb" (tooth) and Sanskrit "jambha" (molar). The noun was the older sense, and the verb grew out of it. English speakers first combed things by using the object as a tool, and the verb eventually displaced an older verb, "kemb", which had meant the same thing. So the familiar action of combing your hair is essentially a derivative of the tooth-shaped object.

Synonyms: brush, toothed instrument, hair accessory

Antonyms: dishevel, tangle