clem
A brick or stone.
Noun
- A brick or stone.
- One stone (unit of mass).
- A testicle.
Origin
From Old English clām (“paste, mortar, mud, clay, poultice”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaim, equivalent to cloam. Similar linguistic development led to the Northumbrian pronunciation of hyem, equivalent to the RP home.
Forms
Synonyms
Verb UK, dialectal
- To be hungry; starve.
- "[…] Here he's back home again, and without work, and without a penny, and thou knows t' little one and I were pretty well clemmed to death when thou got us a bit o' bread and meat last night. We were that!" - 1889,...
- Who are half clemmed from year’s end to year’s end, and see no close to it, no hope, no finish but the pauper’s deals! - 1919, Stanley J. Weyman, “IX. Old Things”, in The Great House:
Origin
Inherited from Middle English *clemmen, *clammen, from Old English clemman, clæmman (“to press, surround”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“to squeeze”). Cognate with Dutch klemmen (“to jam, pinch, stick”), German klemmen (“to jam, clamp; to be stuck, stick [to a surface]”).
Forms
Verb alt of, alternative
- Alternative form of clam (“to adhere”).