Etymology

cloam

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Today it means: Clay. Full definition →

Middle English *clom ← Old English clām ← Proto-West Germanic *klaim
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gleym-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*klaimaz“clay”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*klaim
  4. Old English · inherited fromclām“paste, mortar, mud, clay, poultice”
  5. Middle English · inherited from*clom
  6. English todaycloam

From Middle English *clom, from Old English clām (“paste, mortar, mud, clay, poultice”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaim, from Proto-Germanic *klaimaz (“clay”), from Proto-Indo-European *gleym-, from *gley- (“to stick, smear”). Related to cleam, claim, clem.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishclām all →

clemmy

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.