hummels

Noun

hummel (plural hummels)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, also, attributive) A stag that has failed to grow antlers; a cow that has not developed horns.
   • A pure Aberdeenshire heifer was served with a pure Teeswater bull, to whom she had a first-cross calf. The following season, the same cow was served with a pure Aberdeenshire bull; the produce was a cross calf, which at two years old had very long horns, the parents both hummel.1850 January, “[Quarterly Summary of the Improvements and Discoveries in the Medical Sciences. Anatomy and Physiology.] On the Fœtus in Utero, as Inoculating the Maternal with the Peculiarities of...
2. (also, attributive) Especially in hummel corn: grain that lacks awns (beards or bristles), or has had its awns removed (barley, oats, etc.).
   • The farmers ſervants who have families, and engage by the year, are called hinds, and receive 10 bolls oats, 2 bolls barley, and 1 boll peas, which two laſt articles are called hummel corn, […]1792, Robert Bowmaker, “Number LI. Parish of Dunse, (County of Berwick.)”, in John Sinclair, editor, The Statistical Account of Scotland. Drawn Up from the Communications of the Ministers of the...

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