clam
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clamm (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”), from Proto-Germanic *klam (“press, squeeze together”). The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum.
NounEdit
clam (plural clams)
- A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example the soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria), the hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.
- 1970, “Cherrystones”, in Outlaw, performed by Eugene McDaniels:
- Long as I have my clams I don't give a damn about revolution / Long as I have my rice I don't have to think twice about a solution
- Strong pincers or forceps.
- A kind of vise, usually of wood.
- (US, slang, chiefly in the plural) A dollar.
- Those sneakers cost me fifty clams!
- (slang, derogatory) A Scientologist.
- (slang, vulgar) A vagina.
- (informal) One who clams up; a taciturn person, one who refuses to speak.
Derived termsEdit
- American jackknife clam (Ensis directus)
- Atlantic jackknife clam (Ensis directus)
- bamboo clam (Ensis directus)
- giant clam (Tridacna gigas)
- piss clam (Ensis directus)
- razor clam (Ensis directus) et al.
TranslationsEdit
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VerbEdit
clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)
TranslationsEdit
See alsoEdit
Etymology 2Edit
NounEdit
clam (plural clams)
- A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)
VerbEdit
clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)
- To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)
Etymology 3Edit
From Middle English clammen (“to smear, bedaub”), from Old English clǣman (“to smear, bedaub”). Cognate with German klamm (“clammy”). See also clammy (“damp, cold and sticky”) and clem (“to adhere, stick, plug (a hole)”).
AdjectiveEdit
clam (comparative clammer, superlative clammest)
- (obsolete) clammy.
- 1808, John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language:
- Ice is said to be clam, when beginning to melt with the sun or otherwise, and not easy to be slid upon.
- 1808, John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language:
NounEdit
clam
- clamminess; moisture
- 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History
- The clam of death.
- 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History
VerbEdit
clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)
- To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
- 1690, [John] Dryden, Amphitryon; or, The Two Sosia’s. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […]; and M. Tonson […], published 1691, OCLC 228726855, (please specify the page number):
- A chilling sweat , a damp of jealousy,
Hangs on my brows, and clams upon my limbs
- A chilling sweat , a damp of jealousy,
- To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.
- 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], OCLC 228727523:
- A whole Swarm of Wasps got into a Hony-pot, and there they Cloy'd and Clam'd themselves till there was no getting Out again.
Etymology 4Edit
NounEdit
clam (plural clams)
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 clam in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)
AnagramsEdit
CatalanEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
clam m (plural clams)
SynonymsEdit
LatinEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-Indo-European *ḱl-, zero-grade form of *ḱel- (“to hide, conceal”). Cognate to Latin cēlō.
PronunciationEdit
AdverbEdit
clam (not comparable)
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
PrepositionEdit
clam (+ accusative, ablative)
- (with accusative or, rarely, ablative) without the knowledge of, unknown to
- 163 B.C.E. Terence, Heauton Timorumenos, Act II, Scene II:
- Neque adeō clam mē est.
- Nor indeed is it unknown to me.
- Neque adeō clam mē est.
- 163 B.C.E. Terence, Heauton Timorumenos, Act II, Scene II:
ReferencesEdit
- clam in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- clam in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- clam in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
- clam in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
Old EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- (NE dialects) cloam
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
clām m
DeclensionEdit
Old IrishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-Celtic *klamos (“sick, leprous”). Cognate with Welsh claf (“sick, ill”).[1]
NounEdit
clam m or f
Usage notesEdit
The noun's gender depends on the leper's gender. If the leper is male, it is masculine. If the leper is female, it is feminine.
InflectionEdit
Masculine o-stem | |||
---|---|---|---|
Singular | Dual | Plural | |
Nominative | clam | clamL | claimL |
Vocative | claim | clamL | clamuH |
Accusative | clamN | clamL | clamuH |
Genitive | claimL | clam | clamN |
Dative | clamL | clamaib | clamaib |
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
|
Feminine ā-stem | |||
---|---|---|---|
Singular | Dual | Plural | |
Nominative | clamL | claimL | clamaH |
Vocative | clamL | claimL | clamaH |
Accusative | claimN | claimL | clamaH |
Genitive | claimeH | clamL | clamN |
Dative | claimL | clamaib | clamaib |
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
|
DescendantsEdit
- Middle Irish: clam
MutationEdit
Old Irish mutation | ||
---|---|---|
Radical | Lenition | Nasalization |
clam | chlam | clam pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/ |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Matasović, Ranko (December 2011) , “Addenda et corrigenda to Ranko Matasović’s Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Brill, Leiden 2009)”, in Homepage of Ranko Matasović[1], Zagreb, page 43
Further readingEdit
- Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “clam”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language