lamb

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See also: 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)

  1. A young sheep.
    Synonym: sheepling
  2. (obsolete) A young goat; a kid.
  3. (uncountable) The flesh of a lamb or sheep used as food.
  4. (figuratively) A person who is meek, docile and easily led.
  5. 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.
  6. A simple, unsophisticated person.
  7. (finance, slang) One who ignorantly speculates on the stock exchange and is victimized.
  8. (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, 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]:
      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]:
      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.

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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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
n-s 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.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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lamb (plural lambren or lamber or lambes)

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

Descendants

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

References

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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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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:

Anglian:

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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Descendants

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References

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  1. Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014
  2. Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer, Second Edition

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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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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Descendants

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