lame
pronunciation
How to pronounce lame in British English:
UK [leɪm]
How to pronounce lame in American English:
US [leɪm]
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- Noun:
- someone who doesn't understand what is going on
- a fabric interwoven with threads of metal
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- Verb:
- deprive of the use of a limb, especially a leg
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- Adjective:
- pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness
- (of horses) disabled in the feet or legs
- disabled in the feet or legs
Word Origin
- lame
- lame: [OE] Prehistoric Germanic had an adjective *lamon which meant ‘weak-limbed’, and seems to have originated in a base which meant something like ‘break by hitting’ (English lam ‘hit’ [16], as in ‘lam into someone’, and its derivative lambaste [17] probably come from the same source). In the modern Germanic languages it has diversified into two strands of meaning: Dutch, Swedish, and Danish lam denote mainly ‘paralysed’, a sense also present in German lahm, while English lame has taken the path of ‘limping, crippled’.=> lam, lambaste
- lame (n.)
- "silk interwoven with metallic threads," 1922, from French lame, earlier "thin metal plate (especially in armor), gold wire; blade; wave (of the sea)," from Middle French lame, from Latin lamina, lamna "thin piece or flake of metal."
- lame (adj.)
- Old English lama "crippled, lame; paralytic, weak," from Proto-Germanic *lamon (cognates: Old Norse lami, Dutch and Old Frisian lam, German lahm "lame"), "weak-limbed," literally "broken," from PIE root *lem- "to break; broken," with derivatives meaning "crippled" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic lomiti "to break," Lithuanian luomas "lame"). In Middle English, "crippled in the feet," but also "crippled in the hands; disabled by disease; maimed." Sense of "socially awkward" is attested from 1942. Noun meaning "crippled persons collectively" is in late Old English.
- lame (v.)
- "to make lame," c. 1300, from lame (adj.). Related: Lamed; laming.
Example
- 1. Perhaps washington could simply dispatch a lame duck .
- 2. Mr lee is entering his last year in office and is perceived as being a lame duck .
- 3. For that reason , it should avoid its predecessor 's fate , which led to the government supporting lame ducks rather than winners .
- 4. But all the kids used to taunt me with this lame song .
- 5. With the presidential election five months away , mr. lee has become a lame duck .