Etymograph

English

lemming

Lemming comes from Norwegian lemming, and goes back to Old Norse lómundr.

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350lómundr
  2. Norwegianmodernlemming
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1876same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350lómundr
  2. Norwegianmodernlemming
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1876same form

Earliest quotation: 1876, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Geographical Distribution of Animals: “The well-known lemmings, in severe winters, at long intervals,…”

The story

Sense 2 derives from a longstanding myth that they exhibit so much herd mentality that populations jump off cliffs to their deaths together.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted.

Every English word from Old Norse lómundr

Today it means

noun A small arctic and subarctic rodent of the tribes Lemmini, Dicrostonychini and Lagurini.

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

Etymograph / Old Norse lómundr / lemming

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