See also: Lamb

English edit

 
A sheep and lambs.
 
A lamb.

Etymology edit

From Middle English lamb, from Old English lamb, from Proto-West Germanic *lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz, probably from Proto-Indo-European *h₁l̥h₁onbʰos, enlargement of *h₁elh₁én, ultimately from *h₁el-.

See also Dutch lam, German Lamm, Bavarian Lamperl, Swedish lamm, Finnish lammas, Scottish Gaelic lon (elk), Ancient Greek ἔλαφος (élaphos, red deer). More at elk.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

lamb (countable and uncountable, plural lambs or (both dialectal) lamber or lambren)

  1. A young sheep.
    Synonym: sheepling
  2. (uncountable) The flesh of a lamb or sheep used as food.
  3. (figuratively) A person who is meek, docile and easily led.
  4. Lambskin.
    • 1934, Kay Boyle, My Next Bride, Virago, published 1986, page 8:
      They were as alike as prisoners, dressed in black silk waists and fitted skirts, with shawls of crimped black lamb across their shoulders.
  5. A simple, unsophisticated person.
  6. (finance, slang) One who ignorantly speculates on the stock exchange and is victimized.
  7. (slang) A fan of American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer Mariah Carey (born 1969).
    Holonym: Lambily
    Alternative form: Lamb
    • 2003, Bust, page 88:
      Part of me revels in the campiness of Mariah’s butterfly metaphors and puppies-and-kittens existence. [] But I also genuinely love her music, including this album. I’m one of her lambs.
    • 2010 February 15, Greg Kot, “Mimi cuts loose: Mariah Carey concert at Chicago Theatre shows that the diva can laugh at herself”, in Chicago Tribune, 163rd year, number 46, section 3, page 6:
      Her latest album, “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,” is her best work yet, a warmer and more subtle album that makes her more relatable to those of us who aren’t Mariah die-hards—or “lambs,” as she refers to them.
    • 2019 January 3, Rich Juzwiak, “In Praise of Their Diva”, in The New York Times, section D, page 1:
      This year, Ms. Carey debuted a new Las Vegas revue, and, to celebrate, a group of 36 “lambs,” mostly in their 30s and 40s, boarded a party bus and cruised the Vegas strip for about three hours.
    • 2020 February 25, Chris Azzopardi, “I Love You (But Do You Love Mariah Carey?)”, in The New York Times[1]:
      But when I saw Mariah in Detroit last year during the Caution World Tour, I was a proud lamb in my tour T-shirt, my very adult body suddenly transformed into my 14-year-old self when she emerged onstage.
    • 2022, “Mariah Carey releases her exclusive Pride merchandise”, in WRMF[2]:
      Pride Month begins June 1, and Mariah Carey is giving her lambs plenty of new clothes to celebrate.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:lamb.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Verb edit

lamb (third-person singular simple present lambs, present participle lambing, simple past and past participle lambed)

  1. (intransitive) Of a sheep, to give birth.
  2. (transitive or intransitive) To assist (sheep) to give birth.
    The shepherd was up all night, lambing her young ewes.

Translations edit

Anagrams edit

Faroese edit

Etymology edit

From Old Norse lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Noun edit

lamb n (genitive singular lambs, plural lomb)

  1. lamb (both the animal and meat)
  2. kid (baby goat)
  3. (playing cards, stýrivolt) seven of the chosen cards (trump seven)

Declension edit

n8 Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative lamb lambið lomb lombini
Accusative lamb lambið lomb lombini
Dative lambi lambinum lombum lombunum
Genitive lambs lambsins lamba lambanna

Derived terms edit

Gothic edit

Romanization edit

lamb

  1. Romanization of 𐌻𐌰𐌼𐌱

Icelandic edit

Etymology edit

From Old Norse lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

lamb n (genitive singular lambs, nominative plural lömb)

  1. a lamb

Declension edit

Derived terms edit

Middle English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Old English lamb, from Proto-West Germanic *lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /lam(b)/, /laːm(b)/, /lɔm(b)/, /lɔːm(b)/

Noun edit

lamb (plural lambren or lamber or lambes)

  1. A lamb, its meat, or its skin.
  2. A Christian believer.

Descendants edit

  • English: lamb
  • Scots: lam, lamb
  • Yola: lhawm, lowem

References edit

Norwegian Nynorsk edit

Etymology edit

From Old Norse lamb.

Noun edit

lamb n (definite singular lambet, definite singular dative lambe, indefinite plural lamb or lomb, definite plural lambi or lombi, definite plural dative lambom or lombom)

  1. a lamb (young sheep); (pre-1938) alternative form of lam
  2. (by extension, Christianity, figurative) Christ as sacrificial lamb

Inflection edit

Derived terms edit

Old English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

lamb n (nominative plural lambru)

  1. lamb

Declension edit

West Saxon:

Anglian:

Descendants edit

Old High German edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-West Germanic *lamb, see also Old Saxon lamb, Old English lamb, Old Norse lamb, Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌼𐌱 (lamb).

Noun edit

lamb n

  1. lamb

Declension edit

Descendants edit

References edit

  1. Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014
  2. Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer, Second Edition

Old Norse edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Noun edit

lamb n (genitive lambs, plural lǫmb)

  1. a lamb

Declension edit

Descendants edit

Old Saxon edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-West Germanic *lamb.

Noun edit

lamb n

  1. lamb

Declension edit


Descendants edit