loam

See also: Loam

English

Three layers of subsurface loam; surface layer is dark brown fine sandy loam, subsurface layer is pale brown fine sandy loam, subsoil is red clay loam and sandy clay loam.

Soil types by clay, silt and sand composition as used by the United States Department of Agriculture

Etymology

From Middle English lome, lame, lam, from Old English lām (“clay, mud, mire, earth”), from Proto-West Germanic *laim, from Proto-Germanic *laimaz, *laimô (“clay”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Leem (“loam”), West Frisian liem (“loam”), Dutch leem (“loam”), German Lehm (“loam”). Related also to lime.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ləʊm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /loʊm/, (dialectal) /lum/, /lʊm/
• Rhymes: -əʊm, -uːm

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

loam (countable and uncountable, plural loams)

1. (geology) A type of soil; an earthy mixture of sand, silt and clay, with organic matter to which its fertility is chiefly due.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander
     returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make
     loam, and of why that loam whereto he was converted
     might they not stop a beer-barrel?

2. (metalworking) A mixture of sand, clay, and other materials, used in making moulds for large castings, often without a pattern.

Derived terms

• loamy

Translations

type of soil

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bavarian: Lahm m, Loam m
• Catalan: terra franca f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 壤土 (zh) (rǎngtǔ), 沃土 (zh) (wòtǔ), 亞砂土／亚砂土 (yàshātǔ), (dated) 壚坶／垆坶 (zh) (lúmǔ)

• Crimean Tatar: qumbalçıq
• Czech: hlína (cs) f, půda (cs) f
• Danish: ler (da) n
• Dutch: leem (nl) m
• Estonian: liivsavimullad
• Finnish: hiue (fi)
• French: terre grasse f
• Galician: marxa (gl) f, marga f, mardeña f
• German: Lehm (de) m
• Hungarian: vályog (hu)
• Italian: terra grassa f
• Japanese: ローム (rōm)
• Maori: onematua, oneharuru, tuatara
• Old Norse: leir n
• Polish: glina zwykła, ił (pl) m
• Portuguese: solo franco m
• Russian: сугли́нок (ru) m (suglínok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: ìlovača (sh) f

• Spanish: suelo franco m
• Swedish: mylla (sv), lerjord (sv)

mixture for making moulds

• Finnish: muottihiekka
• German: Formsand m

Verb

loam (third-person singular simple present loams, present participle loaming, simple past and past participle loamed)

1. To cover, smear, or fill with loam.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “loam”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Derived terms

• loamer

Translations

to cover or fill with loam

• Dutch: belemen
• Finnish: peittää hiukeeseen
• German: einlehmen (unusual)

Adjective

loam (not comparable)

1. Made of loam; consisting of loam.

Further reading

• loam on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• AMLO, LMAO, Malo, lmao, loma, malo, mola

Galician

Verb

loam

1. (reintegrationist norm) third-person plural present indicative of loar

Portuguese

Verb

loam

1. third-person plural present indicative of loar