Forms: 1 lám, (laam), 3–4 lam, 3–5, 6–9 Sc. lame, 5–8 lome, (4 in comb. lom-), 6–8 loame, 6–7 Sc. and north. leame, 7 leem, 8–9 loom, (9 laem), 6– loam. [OE. lám neut. = MDu., Du. leem, MLG. lêm, whence mod.G. lehm masc.; with different declension the word is found as OHG. leimo masc. (MHG. leime, mod. HG. dial. leimen); the OTeut. forms *laimo-, *laimon- are from the root *lai- (: *lĭ-) to be sticky, occurring also in LAIR sb.2; for cognates in other ablaut-grades see LIME sb.1]
† 1. Clay, clayey earth, mud; occas. ‘earth’ or ‘clay’ as the material of the human body. Obs.
c. 725. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 6/38. Argella, laam.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. ii. 7. God ʓesceop eornostlice man of þære eorðan lame.
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 221. And god þa ȝeworhte ænne man of lame.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 991. Ȝe! ne makede he mon of lam to his ilicnesse?
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11985. And o lame o þaa lakes selue Wit handes made he sparus tuelue.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, ix. (Bartholomaeus), 135. Adame, Þat wrocht wes of vmwemmyt lame.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. i. 179. The purest treasure mortall times afford Is spotlesse reputation: that away, Men are but gilded loame, or painted clay.
1600. Holland, Livy, 1376. The name [Argiletus] it taketh of a kind of clay or lome, where of there is plentie in that place.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, XIII. xxiv. (1620), 467. This man therefore being framed of dust or lome [L. de terræ pulvere sive limo] (for lome is moystned dust).
a. 1633. Austin, Medit. (1635), 289. My Fathers House is Earth where I must lye: A House of Clay best fits a Guest of Lome.
1655. Culpepper, Riverius, IX. iii. 257. Some [sc. depraved appetites] desire Clay, Coals, Earth, Loam, Chalk and the like.
fig. 1645. G. Daniel, Poems, Wks. 1878, II. 72. See to the Politicke Is not Hee partly Sicke? Are his Designes vnmixt with Drosse and Loame?
a. 1657. Lovelace, Poems (1864), 192. Thou art become Slave to the spawn of mud and lome.
b. Used loosely for: Earth, ground, soil. arch.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 193. Þar sal ȝe find … O lazar ded laid vnder lam.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxix. 5. Maria. In lame is it loken all my light, For-thy on grounde on-glad I goo.
1616. Barbour’s Bruce, XIX. 256 (ed. Hart). That time Edward of Carnauerane The King, was dead, and laide in Lame [MSS. stane].
1867. G. Macdonald, Poems, 160. I’ll see the corpse, ere he’s laid in the loam.
1871. Joaquin Miller, Songs of Italy (1878), 12. These skies are Rome! The very loam Lifts up and speaks in Roman pride.
2. Clay moistened with water so as to form a paste capable of being molded into any shape; spec. a composition of moistened clay and sand with an admixture of horse-dung, chopped straw, or the like, used in making bricks and casting-molds, plastering walls, grafting, etc.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 127. Payed … for borde naill and lome for cering and amending of his chambre flore.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 56/2. In nowyse gyue nomore chaf to the peple forto make lome and claye.
1577. Harrison, England, II. xii. (1877), I. 234. The claie wherewith our houses are impanelled, is either white, red, or blue,… the second is called lome.
1587. Mascall, Govt. Cattle (1627), 40. Ye may giue him lome of a wall mixt with vrine.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. i. 233. Of earth we make Lome; and why of that Lome (whereto he was conuerted) might they not stopp a Beere-barrell?
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 427. You may take off the Barke of any Bough … and couer the bare Place … with Loame well tempered with Horse-dung, binding it fast downe.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 11. Make a Loam of three parts Clay and one part Horse-dung. Ibid. (1684), 57. By covering Steel [in annealing] with a course Powder of Cow-Horns,… and so inclosing it in a Loam.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 86/2. Lome, a kind of Clay to put about Grafts, made of Clay and Horse-dung.
1694. Dryden, Love Triumph., IV. i. 65. The Lodging Rooms are furnisht with Loam.
c. 1710. C. Fiennes, Diary (1888), 116. Their buildings are of timber of Loame and Lathes.
1759. Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LI. 208. A cake of plaisterers stiff loam, or such as the brewers use to stop their beer barrels.
1789. P. Smyth, trans. Aldrich’s Archit. (1818), 80. The loom during the winter should be kept steeped, and made into bricks in the spring.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 518–9. [Founding.] Over the brick dome a pasty layer of loam is applied…; this surface is then coated with a much smoother loam.
1883. T. D. West, Amer. Foundry Pract. (ed. 2), 184. In some places a natural loam can be obtained—but this is rare; most shops have to make their loam of different proportions of sharp and loam sands.
Proverb. phr. 1586. Hooker, Serm., ii. § 19, Wks. (1888), III. 504. But we wash a wall of loam; we labour in vain.
3. A soil of great fertility composed chiefly of clay and sand with an admixture of decomposed vegetable matter.
It is called clay loam or sandy loam according as the clay or sand preponderates.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., May (1706), 57. A natural Earth, with an Eye of Loam in it (such as is proper for most Flowers).
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Flower, Where the Ground is too stiff, and that you desire a natural Mixture to bring it to the State of Loam, you must add to it a sufficient Quantity of dry or Sea Sand.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 458. Loam, it is probable, is not an original soil, but the earth of rotten vegetables.
1767. A. Young, Farmer’s Lett. People, 119. The soil is an exceeding light sandy loam.
1806. Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2), 16. The soil … consisting of clay and sand, and in some places of a loam.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 268. Cliffs, composed … of alternating strata of blue clay, gravel, loam, and fine sand.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 376. The loam discolours the water during a storm for several yards out to sea.
1887. T. Hardy, Woodlanders, II. xii. 228. The fruity district of deep loam.
4. attrib. passing into adj. Made of or consisting of loam.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. 108. In Fyndoure … wes found ane anciant sepulture, in quhilk were ii lame piggis, craftely maid.
1563. Davidson, Confut. Kennedy, in Wodr. Soc. Misc. (1844), 214. The leame pote that contenis the medicine.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall (1833), 2. Cælo tegitur qui non habet urnam.… And heauens will cover when leame tombes cannot do’ide.
1623. Goad, Dolef. Euen-Song, 13. They with their Kniues opened the Loame-wall next vnto them.
1637. Rutherford, Lett. (1664), 66. Are we not Gods leem vessels?
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 260. He dreamed that he was a lame pig.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., X. vi. § 31. To cut their passage out of a lome wall into the next chamber.
1663. Inv. Ld. J. Gordon’s Furniture. A lame pot for watering chamberes.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3953/1. A Manufacture of Lame, Purslaine and Earthen Ware.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., s.v. Aschet, Ashets seem to have been the first things of lame ware.
1884. Cassell’s Fam. Mag., Feb., 140. Our loam-heap should be free from all vermin.
5. attrib. and Comb., spec. in Founding, Brickmaking and Bricklaying, as loam brick, cake, casting, lute, mo(u)ld, work; loam-beater, -board, -hook, -mill, -mo(u)lder, -mo(u)lding; loam-salts, ? land composed of loam impregnated with salt.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Mech. Engin., *Loam Board, a board having an edge cut to the outline of the sectional shape of the work which it is intended to strike up.
1881. C. Wylie, Iron Founding, 15. Dried loam off castings … is only used for making loam bricks for cores.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Loam-cake.
1881. C. Wylie, Iron Founding, 49. *Loam castings, as a rule, do not contract so much as sand castings.
1700. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Bricklayers-Wks. 14. A *Loame-hook, Beater, Shovel, Pick-Ax, Basket and Hod, which commonly belong to Bricklaiers Labourers, and may be called the Labourers Tools.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1057. It [sc. a stoneware pipe] is … secured at the joints with *loam-lute. Ibid., 518. The mould is formed of a pasty mixture of clay, water, sand, and cow’s hair … kneaded together in what is called the *loam mill. Ibid., *Loam moulds.
1881. C. Wylie, Iron Founding, 98. No doubt Hiram, in Solomon’s time, was a thorough *loam-moulder. Ibid. *Loam moulding stands distinctly apart from either green-sand or dry-sand moulding.
1852. Wiggins, Embanking, 100. A piece of silty *loam-salts, near Fossdyke.
18[?]. Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., s.v., Early *loam work [sc. in building] is often stamped in patterns.
1881. C. Wylie, Iron Founding, 50. In large loam castings this occurs to a greater extent than in small or light loam work.
