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nummed

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Numbed; made dull, cold, or without feeling. This is an older spelling and usage.

Detailed Definition
“Nummed” is an archaic form of “numbed,” describing the speaker’s chilled, unfeeling body. The spelling and form are old enough that modern readers may not recognize it at once, even though the meaning is related to a familiar word.
Example
Example in poetry:
“My chilled limbs now nummed lye forlorn” uses an archaic spelling of “numbed”; “Nummed by frost, her fingers could not close” makes bodily sensation immediate; In older verse, nummed often intensifies cold, grief, or paralysis; “The screen-lit crowd stood nummed by the news” adapts the term to contemporary shock.
Additional Notes
In “My chilled limbs now nummed lye forlorn,” the spelling “nummed” is archaic and less familiar than the modern form.; Found in the poem, A Letter to her Husband, absent upon Publick employment by Anne Bradstreet
Also Known As
numbed dulled desensitized stunned
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