seam
See also: seám
English
editPronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /siːm/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Homophones: seem, seme
- Rhymes: -iːm
Etymology 1
editFrom Middle English seem, seme, from Old English sēam (“seam”), from Proto-West Germanic *saum, from Proto-Germanic *saumaz (“that which is sewn”).
Alternative forms
editNoun
editseam (plural seams)
- (sewing) A folded-back and stitched piece of fabric; especially, the stitching that joins two or more pieces of fabric.
- 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
- Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
- A suture.
- (geology) A thin stratum, especially of an economically viable material such as coal or mineral.
- (cricket) The stitched equatorial seam of a cricket ball; the sideways movement of a ball when it bounces on the seam.
- (construction, nautical) A joint formed by mating two separate sections of materials.
- Seams can be made or sealed in a variety of ways, including adhesive bonding, hot-air welding, solvent welding, using adhesive tapes, sealant, etc.
- A line or depression left by a cut or wound; a scar; a cicatrix.
- (figurative) A line of junction; a joint.
- 1697, Joseph Addison, Essay on Virgil's Georgics:
- Precepts should be so finely wrought together […] that no coarse seam may discover where they join.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editfolded back and stitched piece of fabric
|
suture
|
thin stratum of mineral
|
stitched seam of a cricket ball
a joint formed by mating two separate sections of a material
a line or depression left by a cut or wound
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Etymology 2
editFrom the noun seam.
Verb
editseam (third-person singular simple present seams, present participle seaming, simple past and past participle seamed)
- To put together with a seam.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Skeleton in Armor:
- Thus, seamed with many scars, / Bursting these prison bars, / Up to its native stars / My soul ascended!
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Skeleton in Armor:
- To make the appearance of a seam in, as in knitting a stocking; hence, to knit with a certain stitch, like that in such knitting.
- To mark with a seam or line; to scar.
- 1725–1726, Homer, “Book 4”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:
- Seam'd o'er with wounds which his own sabre gave.
- To crack open along a seam.
- 1880, Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ:
- Later their lips began to parch and seam.
- (cricket) Of the ball, to move sideways after bouncing on the seam.
- (cricket) Of a bowler, to make the ball move thus.
Etymology 3
editFrom Old English sēam (“a burden”), from Latin sagma (“saddle”).
Noun
editseam (plural seams)
- (historical) An old English measure of grain, containing eight bushels.
- (historical) An old English measure of glass, containing twenty-four weys of five pounds, or 120 pounds.
- 1952, L. F. Salzman, Building in England, page 175:
- As white glass was 6s. the 'seam', containing 24 'weys' (pise, or pondera) of 5 lb., and 2½ lb. was reckoned sufficient to make one foot of glazing, the cost of glass would be 1½d. leaving 2½d. for labour.
Etymology 4
editFrom Middle English seym (“grease”), from Old French saim (“fat”). Compare French saindoux (“lard”).
Alternative forms
editNoun
editseam (uncountable)
- (UK, dialect, obsolete) Grease; tallow; lard.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
- shall the proud lord
That bastes his arrogance with his own seam
And never suffers matter of the world
- 1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- scour their rusty shields with seam
References
edit- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
Further reading
edit- seam on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- seam (sewing) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- hemming and seaming on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
editOld English
editEtymology
editInherited from Proto-West Germanic *saum, from Proto-Germanic *saumaz.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editsēam m (nominative plural sēamas)
Declension
editStrong a-stem:
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | sēam | sēamas |
accusative | sēam | sēamas |
genitive | sēames | sēama |
dative | sēame | sēamum |
Derived terms
editDescendants
editCategories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/iːm
- Rhymes:English/iːm/1 syllable
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *syuh₁-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Sewing
- English terms with quotations
- en:Geology
- en:Cricket
- en:Construction
- en:Nautical
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms with historical senses
- English terms derived from Old French
- English uncountable nouns
- British English
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- Old English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English masculine nouns
- Old English masculine a-stem nouns