Entry · catalog no. 7004
come
/ /kʌm/ /KUHM
auxiliary · nationwide · 1980s
✓ Verified
1.
A semi-auxiliary verb marking the speaker's indignation at the action described — the sense that the subject had some nerve doing it. Distinct from the motion verb come.
“He come walking in here like he pays rent.”
Origin & Attribution
African American English grammar, identified and analyzed by linguist Arthur K. Spears in The Black English Semi-Auxiliary Come, published in the journal Language in 1982. Because it looks identical to the ordinary motion verb, it went long undetected by outsiders — one of several aspect and mood distinctions African American English makes that Standard English has no single word for, alongside habitual be, completive done, and intensive steady.
1982
Analyzed by Arthur K. Spears in the journal Language
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
nationwide · 1980s
Spoken by
African American English speakers
$COMEThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady44 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
45/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1982
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
+ Cite a sourceArthur K. Spears, The Black English Semi-Auxiliary Come, Language vol. 58
1982
See also