Hummel

Hummelnoun

• 1

  Hummel figurine

hummelnoun/ˈhʌm(ə)l/

• 1

  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.
  • A little hillock gave me ample concealment and an excellent rest for my rifle; and there I reposed as hinds and little stags filed by. First came the wary old hind, looking sharply about her; then a little stag, indifferent to consequences; then more hinds and calves; and last of all the great hummel. As he landed on top of the brow, about fifty yards from me, he stopped to look around. I drew a bead on the junction of his neck and shoulder, pressed gently on the trigger; a bang—smack, followed, and the great hummel lay stretched upon the heather.
• 2

  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, […]
  • Hummel-corn, s[ubstantive] That kind of grain which wants a beard, as pease, beans, &c.

hummelverb/ˈhʌm(ə)l/

• 1

  Of an animal: to remove the horns; to poll.

• 2

  To separate (barley, oats, etc.) from the awns.

  • From the minute description of the machinery, I am apt to think it is made at a considerable expense; [...] I am therefore induced to mention the manner of hummelling (or fattering, as it is called in this county) with me. [...] My thrashing mill is of the old construction, being the first erected in this county (excepting one on Cotterel's plan), and is very powerful; but I apprehend any machine has power enough for the hummelling work.
  • [M]ost threshing-machines are defective in regard to separating the awns of barley from the grains, especially when it has been led home in a raw or soft state. Various devices are often had recourse to for obviating this defect. [...] In other cases, where either of these devices are wanting, it has to be hummelled on the barn-floor, either by means of threshing with the old flails or swiples, or by stamping it with an implement resembling a paviour's ram, the under end of which is armed with plate iron made like a honeycomb. On some occasions, barley has known to be too much hummelled, at least for the use of maltsters; as, when the awn breaks off so close as to leave a small portion of the kernel naked, such grains do not malt kindly.