flam

See also: Flam, flám, and Flåm

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flæm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æm

Etymology 1

17th century; from flim-flam, itself perhaps from a dialectal word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).

Noun

flam (countable and uncountable, plural flams)

1. A freak or whim; an idle fancy.
2. (archaic) A falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext

   Synonyms: deception, delusion

   • 1692, Robert South, "A Further Account of the Nature and Measures of Conscience", in Forty Eight Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions (published 1697)

     all Pretences, or Pleas of Conscience, to the contrary, are nothing but Cant and Cheat, Flam and Delusion.

   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     a perpetual abuse and flam upon posterity

Translations

an illusory pretext; deception; delusion

• Bulgarian: измислица (bg) f (izmislica), измама (bg) f (izmama)

Verb

flam (third-person singular simple present flams, present participle flamming, simple past and past participle flammed)

1. (obsolete) To deceive with a falsehood.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     God is not to be flammed off with Lyes.

Translations

To deceive with a falsehood.

• Bulgarian: измамвам (bg) (izmamvam)

Etymology 2

Imitative.

Noun

flam (plural flams)

1. (drumming) Two taps (a grace note followed by a full-volume tap) played very close together in order to sound like one slightly longer note.

Derived terms

• flam paradiddle, flamadiddle

Translations

Translations

• French: fla (fr)

Verb

flam (third-person singular simple present flams, present participle flamming, simple past and past participle flammed)

1. (drumming, transitive, intransitive) To play (notes as) a flam.
   • 1923, Edward B. Straight, The Straight System of Modern Drumming: The "Natural Way" to Play Drums, page 10:

     We will commence to flam the notes now, as most of them are flammed when you play a March.

   • 1975, George Shipway, Free Lance, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, →ISBN:

     Drums ruffled and flammed.

Anagrams

• FMLA

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from French flan, from Old French flaon. Doublet of flaó.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈflam]
• Rhymes: -am

Noun

flam m (plural flams)

1. flan (custard dessert)

Further reading

• “flam” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “flam”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “flam” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “flam” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Volapük

Noun

flam (nominative plural flams)

1. flame

Declension

declension of flam

	singular	plural
nominative	flam	flams
genitive	flama	flamas
dative	flame	flames
accusative	flami	flamis
vocative 1	o flam!	o flams!
predicative 2	flamu	flamus

• ¹ status as a case is disputed
• ² in later, non-classical Volapük only