loam - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Three layers of subsurface loam; surface layer is dark brown fine sandy loam, subsurface layer is pale brown fine sandy loam, subsoil is red clay loam and sandy clay loam.

Soil types by clay, silt and sand composition as used by the United States Department of Agriculture

From Middle English lome, lame, lam, from Old English lām (“clay, mud, mire, earth”), from Proto-West Germanic *laim, from Proto-Germanic *laimaz, *laimô (“clay”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Leem (“loam”), West Frisian liem (“loam”), Dutch leem (“loam”), German Lehm (“loam”). Related also to lime.

• (UK) IPA(key): /ləʊm/, (dialectal) /luːm/
• (US) IPA(key): /loʊm/, (dialectal, New England) /lum/, /lʊm/[1][2]
• Rhymes: -əʊm, -uːm
• Homophone: loom (one pronunciation)

loam (countable and uncountable, plural loams)

1. (geology) A type of soil; an earthy mixture of sand, silt and clay, with organic matter to which its fertility is chiefly due.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
     Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander
     returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make
     loam, and of why that loam whereto he was converted
     might they not stop a beer-barrel?
2. (metalworking) A mixture of sand, clay, and other materials, used in making moulds for large castings, often without a pattern.

• loamless
• Loamshire
• loamy

type of soil

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: terra franca f
• Chinese:
  Mandarin: 壤土 (zh) (rǎngtǔ), 沃土 (zh) (wòtǔ), 亞砂土 / 亚砂土 (yàshātǔ), (dated) 壚坶 / 垆坶 (zh) (lúmǔ)
• Crimean Tatar: qumbalçıq
• Czech: hlína (cs) f, půda (cs) f
• Danish: ler (da) n
• Dutch: leem (nl) m
• Estonian: liivsavimullad
• Finnish: hiue (fi)
• French: terre grasse f, sol franc
• Galician: marxa (gl) f, marga f, mardeña f
• German: Lehm (de) m
  Bavarian: Lahm m, Loam m
• Hungarian: vályog (hu)
• Italian: terra grassa f
• Japanese: ローム (ja) (rōm)
• Māori: onematua, oneharuru, tuatara
• Old Norse: leir n
• Polish: glina zwykła f, ił (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: solo franco m
• Russian: сугли́нок (ru) m (suglínok)
• Serbo-Croatian:
  Latin: ìlovača (sh) f
• Spanish: suelo franco m
• Swedish: mylla (sv), lerjord (sv)
• Turkish: balçık (tr)
• Welsh: lom m

loam (third-person singular simple present loams, present participle loaming, simple past and past participle loamed)

1. To cover, smear, or fill with loam.

• loamer

loam (not comparable)

1. Made of loam; consisting of loam.

2. ^ Bingham, Caleb (1808), “Improprieties in Pronunciation, common among the people of New-England”, in The Child's Companion; Being a Conciſe Spelling-book […] ‎[1], 12th edition, Boston: Manning & Loring, →OCLC, page 76.

3. ^ Kurath, Hans; McDavid, Raven I., Jr. (1961), The pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States: based upon the collections of the linguistic atlas of the Eastern United States‎[2], Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, § 5.10, page 158.

• loam on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• AMLO, loma, LMAO, malo, mola, Loma, lmao, MOAL, Malo

loam

1. (reintegrationist norm) third-person plural present indicative of loar