clamm

Forms

clamm m, also clomm; dative plural clammum, clommum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *klam- (“to press together”), a noun from the Germanic root that also gave Old High German klamma (“cramp, fetter, narrow place”).^[4][5] Holthausen compares Middle Low German klamme (“clamp, clasp”) and the adjective klamm (“narrow”).^[5] Köbler connects it with the Old English verb clemman (“to squeeze”), from Proto-Germanic *klemmaną (“to squeeze, clamp”), and refers both to Proto-Indo-European *glem- (“lump, clamp”) (Pokorny 360).^[2][6] Etymonline names the same root, or *glom- (“to hold, embrace”), as a possible source.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the poems of the late tenth-century codices.^[7][8] In Andreas in the Vercelli Book the prisoners are on carcerne clommum fæste “fast in fetters in the prison”, and in the Exeter Book Christ the devil lies in carcerne clommum gefæstnad “held fast in fetters in the prison”.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word is mostly poetic: a band, bond or chain, and in a wider sense captivity, as in helle clommas “the bonds of hell” in Genesis.^[10] In Beowulf it is the grip of a hand: Beowulf wished to bind Grendel heardan clammum “with hard grips”, and Grendel's mother seized him atolan clommum “in her terrible grasp”.^[3][11][9] Prose uses it of the bonds of death and hell in the Blickling Homilies and Wulfstan, and a glossary renders Latin “clasma” with clam oððe wed “a pledge”.^[12] It forms poetic compounds such as helleclom and wīteclom.^[10]

Middle English clam meant a clamp or brace;^[13][4] Etymonline thinks the name of the shellfish, English clam, is probably a use of that word.^[13][4]

Timeline

• s. x² – clommum fæste in Andreas in the Vercelli Book.^[7][9]
• s. x² – caldum clommum “with cold fetters” in The Seafarer in the Exeter Book.^[8][1]
• s. x/xi – heardan clammum and atolan clommum in the Beowulf manuscript.^[11][3]
• 1316 – Middle English clam- in clamstodes, timber uprights, in a Chester account.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. a bond, fetter, chain.^[10][14][2]
2. captivity, prison.^[10]
3. a grip, grasp, clasp.^[3][15][14]
4. (glosses) a pledge.^[12]

Word family

• bealuclom
• fȳrclom
• hæfteclom
• helleclom
• wælclom
• wīteclom
• wundorclom
• nīdclamm

Descendants

• Middle English clam (→ English clam)^[1]

Related words

• clemman

Usage notes

Wiktionary files the word under the page clam, beside clām “mud, clay”, a word of another origin;^{[1][16][12][5]} Bosworth–Toller first treated both under one heading, and Toller's Supplement separates them.^{[1][16][12][5]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. clamm
3. ^ a b c d Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. clamm
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 50
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 704
8. ^ a b c Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
9. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 160
11. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
12. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 127
13. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
14. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 70
15. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 57
16. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 158