damとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (英国発音, 米国発音) IPA^(key): /dæm/
• 韻: -æm
• Homophone: damn

語源 1

From Middle English dam, from 古期英語 *damm, from Proto-West Germanic *damm, from Proto-Germanic *dammaz.

名詞

dam (複数形 dams)

1. A structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow or part of the flow, generally for purposes such as retaining or diverting some of the water or retarding the release of accumulated water to avoid abrupt flooding.

   A dam is often an essential source of water to farmers of hilly country.

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎^[1]:

     Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins […]

   • 2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:

     Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.

2. The water reservoir resulting from placing such a structure.

   Boats may only be used at places set aside for boating on the dam.

3. (dentistry) A device to prevent a tooth from getting wet during dental work, consisting of a rubber sheet held with a band.
4. (South Africa, Australia) A reservoir.
5. A firebrick wall, or a stone, which forms the front of the hearth of a blast furnace.

派生語

動詞

dam (三人称単数 現在形 dams, 現在分詞 damming, 過去形および過去分詞形 dammed)

1. (transitive) To block the flow of water.
   • 1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: Printed for Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, pages 3–4:

     Home I would go, / But that my Dores are hatefull to my eyes. / Fill'd and damm'd up with gaping Creditors, / Watchful as Fowlers when their Game will spring; [...]

語源 2

Variant of dame. Doublet of domina and donna.

名詞

dam (複数形 dams)

2. Female parent, mother, generally regarding breeding of animals.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 52:

     More dear […] than younglings to their dam.

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     The dam runs lowing up and down, / Looking the way her harmless young one went.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Hunters assure us, that to chuse the best dog, and which they purpose to keepe from out a litter of other young whelps, there is no better meane than the damme herselfe […].

   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Part 1:

     she / Resolved that Juan should be quite a paragon, / And worthy of the noblest pedigree / (His sire was from Castile, his dam from Aragon) […].

   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber 1992:

     The sky was cloudless—the moon rolled across the surface like a lamb searching for its dam.

3. A kind of crowned piece in the game of draughts.

等位語

• (male parent): sire

語源 3

Said to be possibly coined from the English phrase "I don't give a dam(n)," referring to its small worth.^[1]

名詞

dam (複数形 dams) (historical)

1. (India) An obsolete Indian copper coin, equal to a fortieth of a rupee.
   • 1839, William Holloway, A General Dictionary of Provincialisms, Written with a View to Rescue from Oblivion the Fast Fading Relics of By-gone Days, Lewes, East Sussex: Sussex Press: Printed and published by Baxter and Son, →OCLC, page 42:

     […] A small Indian coin; whence comes the saying "I don't care a dam for you," that is I don't value you a farthing, and not as generally given, "I don't care a damn" or a "curse for you." [Possibly a folk etymology.]

2. A former coin of Nepal, 128 of which were worth one mohar.

参照

語源 4

Clipping or Pronunciation spelling of damn.

別の表記

• dam'

間投詞

dam

1. (slang or pronunciation spelling) Damn.

形容詞

dam (not comparable)

1. (slang or pronunciation spelling) Damn.
   • 2020, Jacie Rowe III, White Lies, Black Truth, The Lost Light, page 196:

     Do not get too caught up in individual campism. The Most-High sent your spirits back on earth to fix yourselves, come together and wake up our people, so do your dam job and stop letting your fleshly desires control you.

Further reading

• dam on Wikipedia.
• dam (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.
• Dam in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

アナグラム

• ADM, AMD, Adm., DMA, MAD, MDA, Mad, adm., mad

形容詞

dam' (not comparable)

1. Pronunciation spelling of damn.
   • 1924, Rudyard Kipling, The Janeites:

     “Every dam' thing about Jane [Austen] is remarkable to a pukka Janeite!”

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 66:

     Bradly squatted on the flat rock to wash his legs, saying gruffly to Podson, "Better wash that dam' mud off; it sticks like hell when it's dry."

   • 2008 December, Albert E. Cowdrey, “A Skeptical Spirit”, in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 115, number 6, page 109:

     Papa says you must have your Degree and a Situation as well, before we can be wed. Well, hurry on and get the dam’ degree then!

副詞

dam' (not comparable)

1. Pronunciation spelling of damn.
   • 1915, Rudyard Kipling, Debits and Credits, Bombay: The Gresham Publishing Company Limited; London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, page 32:

     (These duck-shoots in the dark are dam’ dangerous, y’know.)

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 56:

     "Always wanted a go at the figure. Funked it. Shows what a man can do, given the right model. Dam' good model."

   • 1956, Ian Fleming, chapter 13, in Diamonds Are Forever:

     “People are so dam’ sensitive about colour around here that you can’t even ask a barman for a jigger of rum. You have to ask for a jegro.”