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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

COOMCEIL, -SILE, -SYL, Cumseil, Cumsile, Cumcil, Cume-Ceil, Comseil, Combceil, v. and n. [′kum′sil, kʌm-, kɔm-, -səil]

1. v. To lath and plaster a ceiling; “to line the roof and walls of a room with wood, to ceiling and wainscot, to lath and plaster” (Sc. 1887 Jam.⁶, cumseil, comseil). Vbl.n. cumcilin (Cai.⁴ c.1920), comceiling.Sc. 1795 in Sc. Leader (16 Aug. 1887) 8:
For upwards of ten years . . . it had nothing but the bare rafters above, but in 1795, it was agreed to have it “coomceiled . . . not for ornament, but for the health of the hearers of the gospel.”Sth. 1782 in C. D. Bentinck Dornoch Cath. and Par. (1926) 313:
Mr Bethune had also suggested the desirability of “Coom Ceiling as well as lofting the Cathedral.”Bnff. 1880 J. F. S. Gordon Chrons. of Keith 422:
The last Duchess of Gordon . . . renewed and coomceiled the primitive tabernacle.Ayr. 1752 Ayr Presb. Reg. MS. (15 July): 
To mending the Sarking and Comceiling.

Hence coom-ceiled, -syld, -ciled, -siled, cumsiled, combceiled, (1) having a sloping ceiling; Gen.Sc.; (2) “having the ceiling lathed and plastered” (Abd.⁸ 1917, coomsyld); “usually applied to small houses ceiled with wood, partly on the rafters and collars” (Cai. 1905 E.D.D. Suppl., cumsiled); (3) “having an ordinary flat ceiling” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).(1) Sc. 1834 in Scotsman (23 May 1937) 13/1:
Though on the ground floor, it was, as we phrase it in Scotland, “coom-siled.”Sc. 1937 St Andrews Cit. (30 Jan.) 3/6:
Think of that coom-ceiled upper room at Mossgiel, which he shared with Jock Blame, the halflin.Abd. 1778 Aberdeen Jnl. (16 Feb.): 
Three Flats, besides Coomciled Rooms, a Garret.Fif. 1899 “S. Tytler” Miss Nanse xiii.:
The hot, stifling room was beneath the thatch. It was “coom-ceiled” . . . on one side.(2) Sth. 1775 in C. D. Bentinck Dornoch Cath. and Par. (1926) 308:
The Presbytery asked the heritors to agree . . . “to floor the Room in the Manse that was intended for a kitchen & to finish the two Rooms in the Manse that are not combceiled.”

2. n. A sloping roof; “the projection in an upper room caused by the sloping of the roof” (Ayr.⁴ 1928, cumseil). Cf. Camceil.Sc. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XIV. 8:
Covered with thatch, and with a deep cume-ceil.