An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Kamm
Kamm, masculine, ‘comb,’ from the equivalent Middle High German kam (mm), kamp (b); it signifies ‘comb’ in the widest sense; Old High German chamb; compare Anglo-Saxon comb, English comb (also Anglo-Saxon hunigcomb, English honeycomb?), Gothic *kambs. The term is undoubtedly Old Teutonic; our ancestors attached great importance to dressing their hair. The literally meaning of the word is ‘instrument with teeth,’ for in the allied Aryan languages the meaning ‘tooth’ obtains in the cognate words. Old High German chamb is based upon pre-Teutonic gombho-; compare Greek γομφίος, ‘molar tooth,’ γαμφηλαί, γαμφαί, ‘jaws, beak’; Old Indian jambha, masculine, ‘tusk’ (plural ‘bit’), jambhya, masculine, ‘incisor,’ Old Slovenian ząbŭ, ‘tooth’ Greek γόμφος, ‘plug, bolt,’ points to a wider development of meaning. —