Forms: 6 clamm, 7 clamme, 6– clam. [Orig. clam-shell: app. from prec.; the name referring either to the action of the two valves of the shell in shutting like a pair of clams or pincers; or, as some suggest, to ‘the tenacity with which these animals cling to the rocks.’
The original application, however, was not to the rock species of the tropics, but to British bivalves that burrow in sand or mud.]
1. A name applied to various bivalve shell-fish. a. In Scotland applied, from the 16th c. at least, to the Scallop-shell, Pecten Jacobæa; hence now by some naturalists taken as a book-name of the genus Pecten. b. Also locally to the various species of fresh-water mussels Unio, Anodon.
1500–40. [see clam-shell in 4].
1593. in Rogers, Soc. Life Scot., I. ii. 56. Crabs, spoutfish and clamms.
1664. Phil. Trans., I. 13. Upon their Fins and Tails they have store of Clams or Barnacles.
1769. Pennant, Brit. Zool., III. 140. The bait … a shell fish called Clams.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 298. With the eel, and the clam, and the pearl of the deep.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 941. The Pectens, or Clams, are known by the regular radiation of the ribs from the summit of each valve to the circumference.
1850. Dana, Geol., i. 27. The fresh-water clam, Unionidæ.
1852. D. Moir, Fowler, vi. Poet. Wks. I. 70. Pools, where mussel, clam, and wilk, Clove to their gravelly beds.
c. Applied to foreign bivalves of the order Chamaceæ, comprehending the largest of shell-fish, as the Giant Clam or Clamp (Tridacna gigas), the Yellow Clam (T. crocea), Thorny Clam (Chama Lazarus), etc.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 340/1. A Clamme is a kind of large shell-fish of the Muskle or Cockle species.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. vii. 176. The Clam is a sort of Oyster [i.e., a species of chama] which grows so fast to the Rock that there is no separating it from thence, therefore we did open it where it grows, and take out the Meat, which is very large, fat and sweet.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), II. 1368. Spangles of the richest colours, glowing from a number of large clams.
1855. W. S. Dallas, in Orr, Circ. Sc., Nat. Hist. I. 431. The tridacna gigas (or clam-shell).
1861. J. Lamont, Seasons w. Sea-horses, ix. 139. The shells Tridacnæ and Cardia, vulgarly called clams and cockles.
d. In North America, applied esp. to two species, the Hard or Round Clam (Venus mercenaria), and the Soft or Long Clam (Mya arenaria), found in great abundance on sandy or muddy shores in many parts, and esteemed as articles of food: whence clam-bake and clam-chowder. Also applied to freshwater mussels, and see quot. 1850.
(Mya arenaria is also found on muddy shores in England, where it is known as the Gaper-shell or Old Maid, under which name it is in some places sold for food.)
[1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, VI. 216. Mustels, Wilks, Oisters, Clamps, Periwinkels, and diuers others, &c.]
1672. Josselyn, New Eng. Rarities, 153. Clam, or Clamp, a kind of Shell Fish, a white Muscle.
1698. B. Bullivant, in Phil. Trans., 168. The Clam … hath a Plain Pipe or Proboscis, from whence he ejects Water, if compressed. [This is Mya.]
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), II. lvi. 209. We drew into our larder, clams, snails, frogs, and rattlesnakes.
1850. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S., II. 104. The bivalve shell called Gnathodon … [found in] the Bay of Mobile…. They are called clams here in popular language, and, being thick and strong, afford a good material for road-making.
1883. Leisure Hour, 252/1. The coarsest is the mud clam, or blue nose, which is dug out of the mud with tongs. Choicer ones are called sand clams…. The best species is the sod clam found at Chicoteague.
2. U.S. A term of contempt; one who is, in New England phrase, ‘as close as a clam.’
1871. ‘Mark Twain,’ Sketches, I. 46 (Hoppe). It will be lost on such an intellectual clam as you. Ibid., 54. No meddling old clam of a justice dropped in to make trouble.
3. U.S. slang. The mouth. Also clam-shell.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 143. Shet your clam, our David.
1848–60. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., s.v., There is a common though vulgar expression in New England, of ‘Shut your clam-shell.’
4. attrib. and Comb., as clam-bed, -digger, -eater, -fisher, -rake, -ranch; clam-feeding adj.; clam-bake, a baking, Indian-fashion, upon hot stones, of a mass of clams (often overlaid with layers of potatoes, Indian corn, fish, etc.); a favorite feature of pic-nic excursions to the sea-shore in U.S.; hence applied to the pic-nic party itself; clam-chowder, a chowder made with clams; clam-shell, the shell of a clam; formerly (Sc.) the scallop-shell worn in their hats by pilgrims who had crossed the seas; also slang (see 3); clam-stick, the stick or pole with which tropical clams are caught by thrusting it between the partially open valves of the shell.
1848–60. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., *Clam-bake. At a grand political mass-meeting in favour of Gen. Harrison on the 4th of July 1840, nearly 10,000 persons assembled in Rhode Island, for whom a clam-bake and chowder were prepared.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Sept., 12/1. At a recent fat man’s festival in Connecticut a gigantic clambake was cooked which was 25 ft. long and 10 ft. wide, and consisted of 2,000 ears of corn, 600 pounds of lobster, 600 pounds of fish, 1,000 chickens, innumerable oysters and clams, two barrels of sweet potatoes and two of the ordinary kind, and the whole topped off with two immense plum puddings and 150 water melons. Ibid. (1887), 17 June, 5/2. A clam bake is an institution indigenous to this soil. Long before Puritans or Spiritualists found out its savour, the red man and brother indulged in clam bakes.
1884. H. Spencer, in Contemp. Rev., Feb., 162. Legislation to prevent trawling over *clam-beds.
1866. J. Lord, Brit. Columbia, I. 192. Any one who has travelled in America must have eaten *Clam-chowder…. It is a sort of intermediate affair between a stew proper and soup.
1887. Spectator, 12 March, 351/2. The *clam-eaters of the Australian coast.
1860. Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of Joy (ed. 3), 261. The work of the eel-fisher and *clam-fisher. O it is I! I come with my *clam-rake and spade…. I join the group of clam-diggers on the flats.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 195. Clam-rakes, hoes, and claws.
1882. Standard, 26 Sept., 2/1. To ‘take up a *clam ranch’ is a proverbial expression [in Oregon] … to express the last stage of hard fortune.
1500–20. Dunbar, Flyting, 509. Thy cloutit cloke, thy skryp, and thy *clamschellis.
1540. Sc. Ld. Treas. Acc., in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, I. *305. For vj 1/4 vnces siluer to be ane Clam-schell to kepe the kingis grace Halk-mete.
1862. Emerson, Thoreau, Wks. (Bohn), III. 334. Large heaps of clam-shells and ashes.
1882. Standard, 26 Sept., 2/1. The pointed *‘clam stick’ figures in various aboriginal tales.
