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lamb

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: làmb, Lamb, and LAMB

English

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A sheep and lambs.
A lamb.

Etymology

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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, Danish lam, Swedish lamm, Finnish lammas, Scottish Gaelic lon (“elk”), Ancient Greek ἔλαφος (élaphos, “red deer”). More at elk.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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

  2. A young sheep; especially, one younger than nine months.
    Mary had a little lamb, its fleece as white as snow.
    Mark and Mark have raised some lambs for market, and they won a blue ribbon for quality at the fair.
    Synonym: sheepling
    Hypernyms: sheep, ovine < caprine, caprid, goat antelope, goat-antelope < bovid < ungulate < mammal < vertebrate < animal < organism < creature
    Coordinate terms: hogg, hogget (a bit older); ewe, wether, ram, tup (adults)
  3. (obsolete) A young goat; a kid.
  5. (uncountable) The flesh of a lamb used as food; (sometimes loosely) the flesh of a sheep of any age used as food.
    Hypernyms: mutton, sheepflesh, sheep meat (often construed as coordinate) < meat < food < substance, material, stuff
    Coordinate terms: veal, beef, pork, poultry, chicken
  6. (figuratively) A person who is meek, docile, and easily led.
    Near-synonym: sheep
  7. 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.
  8. A simple, unsophisticated person.
  9. (finance, slang) One who ignorantly speculates on the stock exchange and is victimized.
  10. (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 section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, 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], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 December 2025:
      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], archived from the original on 30 November 2024:
      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

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Translations

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Verb

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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

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Anagrams

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Faroese

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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

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Declension of lamb (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

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Gothic

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Romanization

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lamb

  1. romanization of 𐌻𐌰𐌼𐌱

Icelandic

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lamb n (genitive singular lambs, nominative plural lömb)

  1. a lamb

Declension

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Declension of lamb (neuter)
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative lamb lambið lömb lömbin
accusative lamb lambið lömb lömbin
dative lambi lambinu lömbum lömbunum
genitive lambs lambsins lamba lambanna

Derived terms

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Pronunciations with Old English lengthening before /mb/ were probably less common than in comb, womb due to levelling from the plural lambre, lambren, where such lengthening did not occur (though the spellings lamb in the Ormulum and loomb in the Wycliffite Bible indicate an unlevelled form with lengthening).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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lamb (plural lambren or lambre or lambes)

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

Descendants

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

References

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  • “lō̆mb, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  • Aitken, A[dam] J., Macafee, Caroline, editors (2002), “Part One: Vowel Phonology of Scots to 1375”, in The Older Scots Vowels: A History of the Stressed Vowels of Older Scots from the Beginnings to the Eighteenth Century (Scottish Text Society, Fifth Series; 1), Edinburgh: Scottish Text Society, →ISBN, →OCLC, § 3.1.1, page 8: “or lam 'lamb', the latter explicable as pre-cluster shortening in OE lambru pl.”
  • Jordan, Richard (1974),  Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)‎[3], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 31, page 52: “Before mb the length is retained in comb /kɔːmb/, womb /wɔːmb/ (Northern cāmb, wāmb); lam(b) retained the shortness from the pl. lambru”
  • Luick, Karl (1914-1921), Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache‎[4], Erster Band, I. Abteilung, Leipzig: Chr. Herm. Tauchnitz, published 1921, →OCLC, § 369, page 362:
    Da die Verkürzung des ae. ā zu ă geführt hatte, standen sich südhumbrisch vielfach innerhalb einer Formengruppe ǭ und ă gegenüber. Dieser Wechsel wurde später durch Ausgleich beseitigt […] lǭmb, plur. lambren — lamb

Norwegian Nynorsk

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Etymology

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From Old Norse lamb.

Noun

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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

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Historical inflection of lamb
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
Aasen1 Lamb Lambet Lomb Lombi
1901 lamb lambet (lambe) lamb lambi
1938 lam
  • Forms in italics are currently considered non-standard.
  • Forms in [brackets] were official, but considered second-tier.
  • Forms in (parentheses) were allowed under Midlandsnormalen.
  • 1Nouns were capitalised for most of the 19th century.

Derived terms

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Old English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lamb n (nominative plural lambru)

  1. lamb

Declension

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West Saxon: Strong z-stem:

singular plural
nominative lamb lambru
accusative lamb lambru
genitive lambes lambra
dative lambe lambrum

Anglian:

singular plural
nominative lomb lombur, lomberu
accusative lomb lombur, lomberu
genitive lombur lombra
dative lombur lombrum

Descendants

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Old High German

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Etymology

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

Noun

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lamb n

  1. lamb

Declension

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Declension of lamb
singular plural
nominative lamb lembir
accusative lamb lembir
genitive lambes lembiro
dative lambe lembirum, lembirom
instrumental lambu, lambo lembirum, lembirom

Descendants

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References

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Old Norse

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Etymology

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From Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Noun

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lamb n (genitive lambs, plural lǫmb)

  1. a lamb

Declension

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Declension of lamb (strong a-stem)
neuter singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative lamb lambit lǫmb lǫmbin
accusative lamb lambit lǫmb lǫmbin
dative lambi lambinu lǫmbum lǫmbunum
genitive lambs lambsins lamba lambanna

Descendants

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Old Saxon

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Etymology

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From Proto-West Germanic *lamb.

Noun

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lamb n

  1. lamb

Declension

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lamb (z-stem)
singular plural
nominative lamb lambiru
accusative lamb lambiru
genitive lambes lambirō
dative lambe lambirum
instrumental — —

Descendants

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