lame: [OE] Prehistoric Germanic had an adjective *lamon which meant ‘weak-limbed’, and seems to have originated in a base which meant something like ‘break by hitting’ (English lam ‘hit’ [16], as in ‘lam into someone’, and its derivative lambaste [17] probably come from the same source). In the modern Germanic languages it has diversified into two strands of meaning: Dutch, Swedish, and Danish lam denote mainly ‘paralysed’, a sense also present in German lahm, while English lame has taken the path of ‘limping, crippled’. => lam, lambaste
lame (n.)
"silk interwoven with metallic threads," 1922, from French lame, earlier "thin metal plate (especially in armor), gold wire; blade; wave (of the sea)," from Middle French lame, from Latin lamina, lamna "thin piece or flake of metal."
lame (adj.)
Old English lama "crippled, lame; paralytic, weak," from Proto-Germanic *lamon (cognates: Old Norse lami, Dutch and Old Frisian lam, German lahm "lame"), "weak-limbed," literally "broken," from PIE root *lem- "to break; broken," with derivatives meaning "crippled" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic lomiti "to break," Lithuanian luomas "lame"). In Middle English, "crippled in the feet," but also "crippled in the hands; disabled by disease; maimed." Sense of "socially awkward" is attested from 1942. Noun meaning "crippled persons collectively" is in late Old English.
lame (v.)
"to make lame," c. 1300, from lame (adj.). Related: Lamed; laming.
双语例句
1. He mumbled some lame excuse about having gone to sleep.
他含含糊糊地找了个蹩脚的借口，想要解释自己为什么睡着了。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Scott's muscle atrophied, his leg became stunted, and he was left lame.
斯科特的肌肉萎缩，一条腿发育不完全，成了个瘸子。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Look, I'm not one of your lame ducks.
听着，我可不像你手下的那些废物。
来自柯林斯例句
4. All our theories sound pretty lame.
我们的理论似乎全都站不住脚。
来自柯林斯例句
5. He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.
