lame

Pronunciation

• IPA: /leɪm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English lama (“crippled, lame, paralytic, weak”) (about 750),^[2][3][4] from *lamô,^[2][3] cognate with Dutch lam, German lahm and Old Norse lami.^[2][3][4] Outside Germanic it is related to Lithuanian limti (“to break down”) and Old Church Slavonic ломити (lomiti, “to break”),^[2][3][4][5] from a root meaning to break or soft.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Crippled or impaired, weak, unable to move: about 725 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English it meant especially crippled in the feet, but also in the hands, or disabled by disease.^[3] The figurative sense, imperfect, halting, weak (a lame excuse), is attested from the late 14th century.^[3] As a noun for crippled people collectively it is from late Old English.^[3] The verb, to injure or cripple, is from about 1300, in Havelok the Dane.^[2][3] The slang sense, socially awkward or uncool, is attested from 1942,^[3] and the noun, an unsophisticated person, from 1959 in American slang.^[6] A lame duck is a weak or ineffectual person, or an official whose term is ending.^[7][1]

Timeline

• c. 725 – crippled.^[6]
• c. 1300 – to lame (verb).^[2]
• late 14th century – feeble, unconvincing.^[3]
• 1942 – socially awkward (slang).^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Unable to walk normally because of an injury or condition of the leg or foot.
2. Weak and unconvincing: a lame excuse.
3. (slang) Dull or uncool.

Verb

1. To make lame; to cripple.

Word family

• lamely
• lameness
• unlame
• lamebrain
• lame duck

Usage notes

Lamé, a fabric woven with metallic threads (1918–22), and lame, a thin metal plate in armour, are separate words, from French lame, from Latin lāmina.^[3][5][8]

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins