Of course you know! Or, do you?
How do you spell “on the lam” / “on the lamb” again?
Simple answer: “On the lam” (L-A-M) is the correct spelling of this expression.
Less than simple answer: But we don’t quite know where this expression comes from.
Oh, English language. There you go again.
Does this expression come from… ?
- A. The Irish word leim, which means “to jump”
- B. The British slang word “namase,” which meant “to skedaddle” around 1855
- C. The Scandinavian verb lam, meaning “to beat”
- D. The English word “slam”
All have been postulated, but only one is likely correct.
This is where we insert Jeopardy! music or etymologists heckling each other. No, you’re right. We would never do such a thing.
Well, getting back to the debate, the leading theory seems to back up option C, but just because it’s the leading theory does not mean that this is a decided matter.
Here’s what you need to know about our options for the origin of “on the lam”:
A. The Irish word leim, which means “to jump”
While this theory was published in Daniel Cassidy’s How the Irish Invented Slang, which won an American Book Award for nonfiction in 2007, its historical accuracy isn’t greatly accepted by the etymology community. Based on possible phonetic connections and a close definition match, not research into the evolution of language, this theory has been widely discounted; however, you can see why the author might want to stake a claim in this idea.
And it hasn’t been definitively disproven, so it still lingers in the conversation.
B. The British slang word “namase,” which meant “to skedaddle” around 1855
Slang is endlessly fun, isn’t it? It transforms language rapidly, and sometimes, certain words or phrases stick long after the masses remember where they came from. (See “hipster,” “jive,” “bloomers,” and so many more, right?)
In the mid-nineteenth century, the word “namase,” alternatively spelled “nammou” and possibly “lammas,” might have meant “to run off.” It might also be related to the Old American West slang word “vamoose.” Now, I love word stories like this, but there’s not as much depth here as I would like for me to commit to this answer.
Side note: In 1972, Woody Allen wrote about the origin of “on the lam” in a humor essay titled “Slang Origins.” His theory, which was different from the above slang conversation, involved feathers, dice, and twirling in a frenzy, but the moral of the story is that we always need to be aware of our sources and whether they’re academic or not. Woody Allen’s essay was humor, not true etymological theory.
C. The Scandinavian verb lam, meaning “to beat”
Mark Twain used the word “lam,” meaning “to beat,” and his usage draws back on a word that the Oxford English Dictionary says came to English in the 1500s. Merriam Webster backs this up, citing a root “perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse lemja to thrash; akin to Old English lama.” Words connected to this version of “lam” include “lambaste,” “lame,” and “bedlam.”
By the mid-1800s, school kids in both England and the United States spoke of schoolyard brawls as “lamming out” or “lamming into” someone. A beating or thrashing is implied. Mark Twain, as always, is capturing the language of his era.
We also have a connection with a thief about to flee after a successful robbery from famed Scottish detective Allan J. Pinkerton in his 1886 memoir, Thirty Years A Detective, where “lam” was a code word for a successful theft and preparing to flee.
So to avoid a lamming, one lams? The expression took early forms of “take a lam,” “do a lam,” and “make a lam,” before it’s present usage of “being on the lam.”
Fun extra side note, the expression “to beat it,” meaning “to leave quickly” might be etymologically related to being “on the lab” if this “beating” origin story is our correct answer. Beating one’s feet on the pavement (or dirt… or cobblestones…)? Avoiding a beating all the while?
Ding, ding, ding. Do we have a winner? Maybe. At least, it seems the most likely.
D. “Lam” is related to the English word “slam”
I’m going to note this answer because I’ve seen it suggested online; however, again, there doesn’t seem to be much in the historical record to argue for it.
So, is this more than you ever wanted to know about being on the lam? But at least you know there are no sheep involved, so I’m calling that progress.
Are there any other expressions that you’re curious about? As always, please let me know, and good luck to you and your words, folks!
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