Clam

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Dr. Goodword
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Clam

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon May 11, 2015 10:45 pm

• clam •

Pronunciation: klæm • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. An edible, burrowing bivalve mollusk of the class Pelecypoda, found in the sand under fresh and salt water. 2. a clamp or vise. 3. (Slang) A dollar. 4. (Verb: "to clam up") To seal one's lips, to refuse to talk.
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Notes: It is easy to see how the relation with clamp could be confused with clam. With this in mind, the idiom "to clam up" arose: to clamp one's lips closed the way a clam clamps its two shells together for protection. The use of "clam" to refer to dollars in the US (50 clams = $50) is easy to follow if you know that Indian wampum (money) was a string of shells. But why would anyone be as happy as a clam? Have you ever seen a clam smile? The full original phrase was "happy as a clam at high tide", the only time when the little critters are safe from hungry animals.

In Play: As you can see already, today's word is a favorite of English speakers and has many colloquial uses, "When we asked the kids who had tracked mud across the kitchen floor, they all clammed up." Using this word to refer to dollars is very slangy but has its humorous uses, "Emma Chiset must have paid 500 clams for that gown she wore to the Fly Ball last weekend."

Word History: Today's word comes from Old English clamm "a bond, clamp", which points to an Old Germanic form klam- "to press or squeeze together". This root ended up in English as [/i]clam[/i], clamp and, probably, cramp. It is possible that climb in the sense of "cling", as 'a climbing vine', may have originated in the same root. Clammy "wet, sticky," on the other hand, had a different origin. It was widely spelled claymy in the 15th century, but clam was used to refer to clay at about the same time. In any event, although we associate the adjective with clams now, the original association was with clay.
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David Myer
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Re: Clam

Postby David Myer » Tue May 12, 2015 5:05 am

I wince at mollusk with a 'k' because of my English heritage, but at least I can see the logic - notwithstanding the Latin origin of the word which had a 'c'. The 'k' implies a Greek origin. But never mind, it is the American way. But vise with an 's' is inexplicable. I accept that American spelling is often more sensible than the original English spelling, but this word is vice, to rhyme with mice. So use of an 's' implies pronunciation to rhyme with wise or guise or surmise.
Or is vise (as in clamp) actually pronounced that way in North America?

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Re: Clam

Postby LukeJavan8 » Tue May 12, 2015 1:36 pm

In my experience, spelled vise, with
a 'ssss" sound.
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misterdoe
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Re: Clam

Postby misterdoe » Tue May 12, 2015 8:22 pm

Probably spelled that way to avoid confusion between "course of badness" (vice) and "clamp" (vise)...

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Re: Clam

Postby call_copse » Wed May 13, 2015 6:37 am

I've got to agree with David, vise is just wrong. Very wrong, even if you pronounce it right. Funny, I'm normally aware of American language mis-usage but had never come across that one. I'm putting it third for egregiousness behind loo-tenant, and boo-ey for buoy. :lol:
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David Myer
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Re: Clam

Postby David Myer » Wed May 13, 2015 7:33 am

Excellent Iain! I love booey for buoy, although I believe the Scots actually use that booey pronunciation, and I have a lot of time for the Scots and their pronunciation. They are amongst the few that roll their 'R's to distinguish properly between Lawn and the Victorian town Lorne, for example.

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Re: Clam

Postby misterdoe » Wed May 13, 2015 10:42 am

I'm putting it third for egregiousness behind loo-tenant, and boo-ey for buoy. :lol:
Well, how would you have us pronounce it in lieu of "loo-tenant"? :wink:

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Re: Clam

Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed May 13, 2015 11:16 am

I've got to agree with David, vise is just wrong. Very wrong, even if you pronounce it right. Funny, I'm normally aware of American language mis-usage but had never come across that one. I'm putting it third for egregiousness behind loo-tenant, and boo-ey for buoy. :lol:

and I've always wondered if there were any 'righttenants'
to compliment 'leftenants'.
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Re: Clam

Postby Perry Lassiter » Thu May 14, 2015 8:18 pm

I've heard vise pronounced vice - my preference - but also vize, often with the Southern drawled I, i.e. ah, vaihze.
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