Wiktionary

clam

See also: CLAM

English edit

 
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littleneck clams, of the species Mercenaria mercenaria

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clamm (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“press, squeeze together”). The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum. The sense "Scientologist" alludes to the Scientologist belief that human thetans (souls) previously inhabited clams.

Noun edit

clam (plural clams)

  1. A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria), sea clams 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
  2. A type of strong pincers or forceps.
  3. A kind of vise, usually of wood.
  4. (US, slang, chiefly in the plural) A dollar.
    Those sneakers cost me fifty clams!
    • 1973, Lucas Webb, Stribling, page 188:
      The network canceled—nonco-operation their legal shysters said. Suing me, for, for ten million clams, damages to sponsors, agencies.
  5. (slang, derogatory) A Scientologist.
    • 1998 February 23, jesparolini, “CO$ Celebrities: USEFUL IDIOTS”, in alt.religion.scientology‎[2] (Usenet):
      So the clams have John Travolta, Tom Cruise, et al in their hot li'l ol'P-R hands […]
  6. (slang, vulgar) A vagina.
  7. (slang) In musicians' parlance, a wrong or misplaced note.
  8. (informal) One who clams up; a taciturn person, one who refuses to speak.
  10. (dated, US, slang) mouth (Now found mostly in the expression shut one's clam)
    • 1900, Burt L. Standish, Frank Merriwell's Tricks: Or True Friends and False‎[3]:
      Why, he hasn't opened his clam since that morning in your room. I expected he would hold forth on every and all occasions.
    • 2017, Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Dungeon Brain‎[4]:
      Jason wouldn't shut his clam about the invaders.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

Verb edit

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

  1. To dig for clams.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

See also edit

Etymology 2 edit

Noun edit

clam (plural clams)

  1. A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.
    • 1702, Campanologia Improved:
      By the bells standing too long in leading compass, the rest are thrown and jumbled together; whereby claps and clams so unpleasing to the hearers are occasion'd.

Verb edit

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

  1. To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.
    • 1702, Campanologia Improved:
      When they [bells] lie fifths thus 1 5 2 6 3 7 4 8, 'tis then most pleasant and excellent music to clam them; that is, the two notes of each concord to strike together, and if they be clam'd true the eight bells will strike like four, but with far greater musick and harmony.

Etymology 3 edit

From Middle English clammen, clemen (“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)”).

Alternative forms edit

Adjective edit

clam (comparative clammer, superlative clammest)

  1. (obsolete) clammy.
    • 1808, John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language‎[5]:
      Ice is said to be clam, when beginning to melt with the sun or otherwise, and not easy to be slid upon.

Noun edit

clam

  1. clamminess; moisture

Verb edit

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

  2. To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
  3. To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.

Etymology 4 edit

Noun edit

clam (plural clams)

  1. (rowing) Alternative form of CLAM

Etymology 5 edit

Noun edit

clam (plural clams)

  1. Alternative form of clem (“to starve”)

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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams edit

Catalan edit

Etymology edit

From Latin clamor, possibly borrowed through Old French clamor.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

clam m (plural clams)

  1. clamor
    Synonym: clamor

Latin edit

FWOTD – 7 April 2015

Etymology edit

From Proto-Italic *klām, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱl-, zero-grade form of *ḱel- (“to hide, conceal”). Cognate to Latin cēlō.

Pronunciation edit

Adverb edit

clam (not comparable)

  1. clandestinely, secretly, privately
    Antonyms: publice, apertē, vulgō, palam
  2. stealthily

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Preposition edit

clam (+ accusative, ablative)

  1. (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.

References edit

  • “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 with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • clam in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

Old English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-West Germanic *klaim (“mortar, clay”).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

clām m

  1. mud

Declension edit

Declension of clam (strong a-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative clām clāmas
accusative clām clāmas
genitive clāmes clāma
dative clāme clāmum

Old Irish edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Celtic *klamos (“sick, leprous”). Cognate with Welsh claf (“sick, ill”).[1]

Noun edit

clam m or f

  1. leper

Usage notes edit

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.

Inflection edit

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:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization
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:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Descendants edit

  • Middle Irish: clam

Mutation edit

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.

References edit

  1. ^ 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 reading edit

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