bam

See also: Appendix:Variations of "bam"

Translingual

Symbol

bam

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Bambara.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bæm/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æm

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

bam

1. Representing a loud noise or heavy impact.

   The wind knocked the tree over last night. Bam! It nearly scared me to death.

   • 2007, Joe Biden, Promises to Keep‎^[1], New York: Random House, published 2008, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 266:

     We all looked up from the maps, silent, and listened to the hurried footsteps in the entryway. They padded up the red carpet, bam-bam-bam, and across the landing and then up the next flight at a gallop, bam-bam-bam.

2. Representing a sudden or abrupt occurrence.

   She said she dumped him. Now — bam! — they're back together.

Synonyms

• bang
• blam
• pow
• wham
• dishoom (India)

Derived terms

• bammo
• kabam
• wham, bam, thank you ma'am

 

Translations

sound of a forceful blow

• Czech: bác (cs)
• Esperanto: bac
• Polish: bach (pl)

Etymology 2

Noun

bam (plural bams)

1. (Scotland, slang) A ned; a bampot.

Etymology 3

Perhaps from bamboozle.

Noun

bam (plural bams)

1. (slang, archaic) An imposition; a cheat; a hoax.
   • 1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns:

     To relieve the tedium he kept plying them with all manner of bams.

Verb

bam (third-person singular simple present bams, present participle bamming, simple past and past participle bammed)

1. (slang, archaic) To impose on (someone) by a falsehood; to cheat.
   • 1774, Samuel Foote, The Cozeners:

     This is some conspiracy, I suppose, to bam, to chouse me out of my money

   • 1747, David Garrick, Miss in Her Teens: or the Medley of Lovers, Act II, in The Plays of David Garrick: A Complete Collection of the Social Satires, French Adaptations, Pantomimes, Christmas and Musical Plays, Preludes, Interludes, and Burlesques, ed. Harry William Pedicord and Fredrick Louis Bergmann, vol. 1 (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1980), 93

     I’ll break a lamp, bully a constable, bam a justice, or bilk a boxkeeper with any man in the liberties of Westminster.

2. (slang, archaic) To jeer or make fun of.

Etymology 4

Noun

bam (plural bams)

1. Abbreviation of bare-arse minimum. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Anagrams

• -mab, ABM, B. M. A., BMA, MAb, MBA, Mab, Mba, amb, amb., mAb, mab

Chinese

Etymology

Misspelling of English ban. Doublet of ban.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): bem¹

---

• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: bem¹
    • Cantonese Pinyin: bem¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: bém¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pɛːm⁵⁵/

Verb

bam

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, Internet slang, leetspeak, neologism) to ban [2006]

Derived terms

• bam圖／bam图

 

Iban

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bam/

Adjective

bam

1. greedy

Indonesian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbam/
• Rhymes: -bam, -am, -m

Etymology 1

From Malay bam, from Persian بام (bâm, “ceiling”).

Noun

bam (plural bam-bam, first-person possessive bamku, second-person possessive bammu, third-person possessive bamnya)

1. (nautical) crosspiece

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic

Noun

bam (plural bam-bam, first-person possessive bamku, second-person possessive bammu, third-person possessive bamnya)

1. bam: boom of a large drum

Further reading

• “bam” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Old Frisian

Ēn bām.

Alternative forms

• baem (Late Old Frisian)

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *baum, from Proto-Germanic *baumaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow”). Cognates include Old English bēam, Old Saxon bōm and Old Dutch bōm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baːm/

Noun

bām m

1. tree
2. bench
3. seat

Inflection

Declension of bām (masculine a-stem)
	singular	plural
nominative	bām	bāmar, bāma
genitive	bāmes	bāma
dative	bāme	bāmum, bāmem
accusative	bām	bāmar, bāma

Descendants

• North Frisian:

  Most dialects: buum

  Heligoland: Booam

  Sylt: Boom

• Saterland Frisian: Boom
• West Frisian: beam

References

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN

Old Saxon

Noun

bām m

1. Alternative form of bom

Pnar

Etymology

From Proto-Khasian *baːm (“to eat”), from Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɓaam (“to chew”). Cognate with Khasi bam, Blang [La Gang] pá̤m, Ngeq baːm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bam/

Verb

bam

1. to eat

Polish

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbam/
• Rhymes: -am
• Syllabification: bam

Interjection

bam

1. dong, ding dong (used when imitating a clock or watch)

   Synonyms: bim-bam, bim-bam-bom

Further reading

• bam in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

bam

1. bang

References

• bam in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Tày

Pronunciation

• (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [ɓaːm˧˥]
• (Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [ɓaːm˦]

Adjective

bam

1. concave

   Lâ̱ư nà mì lai búng bam.

   The fields have a lot of indented areas.

References

• Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎^[2][3] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên

Volapük

Noun

bam (nominative plural bams)

1. bench
2. seat

Declension

declension of bam

	singular	plural
nominative	bam	bams
genitive	bama	bamas
dative	bame	bames
accusative	bami	bamis
vocative 1	o bam!	o bams!
predicative 2	bamu	bamus

• ¹ status as a case is disputed
• ² in later, non-classical Volapük only