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loam

Pronunciation: /ləʊm/

The English word “loam” has 4 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A type of soil; an earthy mixture of sand, silt and clay, with organic matter to which its fertility is chiefly due.
  2. A mixture of sand, clay, and other materials, used in making moulds for large castings, often without a pattern.

verb

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

adjective

  1. Made of loam; consisting of loam.

Etymology

From Middle English lom, lome, 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.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.