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bob@coolgroups.com - 11 Nov 2006 01:59 GMT

Any idea where the word lam comes from? (as in life on the lam)

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Eric Walker - 11 Nov 2006 02:24 GMT

> Any idea where the word lam comes from? (as in life on the lam)

_The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang_ cites sources as far back as
1886. It conjectures that the word may derive from a verb "lam", to
beat.

The OED says of that verb that it derives from Old Norse, where it
meant "to lame" (as by beating). It seems to have largely retained
that sense of a sound thrashing, though it is now apparently colloquial
or vulgar. How that would connect to running away is unclear to me.

There is also a noun "lam" that refers to a sort of fishing net, also
lam-net (apparently so called because fish are driven into it by
beating--lamming?--the water).

Finally, there is a component of a loom, a bit of wood connected to the
treadles by a string. Lacking any better knowledge, I'd put a modest
bet on this one, in that the weaver's operating the treadles might be
considered analogous to pumping the legs, that is, running. (Just a
wild guess, though.)

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Evan Kirshenbaum - 11 Nov 2006 18:07 GMT

>> Any idea where the word lam comes from? (as in life on the lam)
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> colloquial or vulgar. How that would connect to running away is
> unclear to me.

The OED cites the noun (in the form "to do a lam") to 1897. The
relevant verb is cited to 1886 and is defined as

3. _intr_. To run off, to escape, to 'beat it'. _U.S. slang._

So "lam" is the same as "beat [it]". Unfortunately, "beat it" is only
cited to 1906, but "to beat one's way", defined as "to travel, or make
one's way, _spec._ by illicit means" is cited to 1883. (Presumably,
what was beaten was a path.)

So in the same way that "beat" in the sense of "defeated" is
intensified to "thrashed" or "murdered", apparently "beat one's way
out of there" was intensified to "lam".

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Millicent Tendency - 11 Nov 2006 09:58 GMT

>Any idea where the word lam comes from? (as in life on the lam)

"LAM" was an acronym formerly used by clerks who kept records of
prison inmates: "Location: Absconded/Missing".

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Millicent Tendency
(TEFKATHE)

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Eric Walker - 11 Nov 2006 12:13 GMT

> "LAM" was an acronym formerly used by clerks who kept records of
> prison inmates: "Location: Absconded/Missing".

Fascinating. Any source available?

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Donna Richoux - 11 Nov 2006 12:22 GMT

> > "LAM" was an acronym formerly used by clerks who kept records of
> > prison inmates: "Location: Absconded/Missing".
>
> Fascinating. Any source available?

Well, it's not on my list of "False and Dubious Acronyms." Whether I put
it on there will depend on whether Ross just tossed this off from his
imagination or he actually saw someone else try to pass this off as
real. Whether it's a newborn or a yearling, so to speak.

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Best -- Donna Richoux

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Millicent Tendency - 12 Nov 2006 11:51 GMT

>> > "LAM" was an acronym formerly used by clerks who kept records of
>> > prison inmates: "Location: Absconded/Missing".
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>imagination or he actually saw someone else try to pass this off as
>real. Whether it's a newborn or a yearling, so to speak.

Guilty, m'lud. I posted it supposing, perhaps unreasonably, that
pretty much everyone would twig the reference to the First AUE/AFU Law
of Word Origins, which states that any acronym-based etymology of a
slang or taboo word can safely be treated as false.

And where *is* Rey?

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Millicent Tendency
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Don Phillipson - 11 Nov 2006 11:38 GMT

> Any idea where the word lam comes from? (as in life on the lam)

Partridge's Dictionary of the Underworld cites one
use of verb lam = escape in Allan Pinkerton's
memoirs 1886.

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Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

lam