Etymograph

English

clam

Clam comes from Middle English clam ‘pincers, vice, clamp’, from Old English clam ‘bond, fetter, grip, grasp’, and ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan ‘press, squeeze together’.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*klammjan‘press, squeeze together’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150clam‘bond, fetter, grip, grasp’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘pincers, vice, clamp’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1900same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*klammjan‘press, squeeze together’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150clam‘bond, fetter, grip, grasp’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘pincers, vice, clamp’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1900same form

Earliest quotation: 1900, Burt L. Standish: “Why, he hasn't opened his clam since that morning…”

The story

The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum. The sense "Scientologist" alludes to the Scientologist belief that human thetans (souls) previously inhabited clams.

Linked words

through Old English clam ‘bond, fetter, grip, grasp’

clem, 2 more

Another origin of clam

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gley-‘to smear, glue’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*klaimijaną‘to smear’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*klaimijan‘to smear with clay, mortar’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150clǣman‘to smear, bedaub’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clammen‘to smear, bedaub’
  6. Englishtodayclam

Today it means

noun A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria), sea clams or hen clams (Spisula solidissima), and other species, possibly originally applied to clams of species Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *klammjan / clam

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