Medieval · insult · noun
Cumberworld
KUM-ber-wurld /ˈkʌmbəˌwɜːld/pronunciation reconstructed — no period source gives it
First recordedlate 1300s
A person (or thing) that merely encumbers the world — useless, taking up space. Chaucer's Troilus uses it of himself in despair.
Where it was first recorded
Dated by Etymonline (late 14c.), which does not name the work. Chaucer uses it in Troilus and Criseyde (probably completed mid-1380s).
Also spelled: cumber-world, combre-world
In its own time
I, combre-world, that may of no-thing serve, / But ever dye, and never fully sterve?
Today
Modern exampleAfter a week of flu I felt like a proper cumberworld, good for nothing but the sofa.
Harmless but melancholy — works as a self-mocking word more than an attack.
Questions
What does cumberworld mean?
A person (or thing) that merely encumbers the world — useless, taking up space. Chaucer's Troilus uses it of himself in despair.
When was cumberworld first used?
It is first recorded late 1300s.
Can you still use cumberworld today?
Harmless but melancholy — works as a self-mocking word more than an attack.
Sources
- cumber (v.) — entry mentioning cumber-world — Etymonline (Online Etymology Dictionary)
- cumberworld — Wiktionary
- Chaucer's Works, vol. 2: Boethius and Troilus (ed. Skeat), text and note to IV.279 — Project Gutenberg
Checked 2026-09-30 · verdict: rare — genuine, but marked rare, obsolete or archaic, or seldom recorded, in the dictionaries listed above