lum

See also: Appendix:Variations of "lum"

English

WOTD – 1 September 2022

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Scotland) IPA^(key): /lʌm/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌm

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Scots lum, Early Scots lumb; further etymology uncertain, possibly from Old French lum (“light”) (compare French lumière (“light; cavity or channel within a tube or tubular organ, lumen; opening”)), from Latin lūmen (“light; light source; opening through which light can penetrate such as an air-hole or window; opening or orifice in a water-pipe or funnel”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”). The word is possibly also related to Welsh llumon (“chimney”) (obsolete).

Noun

lum (plural lums) (Northern England, Scotland)

1. A chimney; also, the top part of a chimney.
   • 1768, Alexander Ross, “Canto I”, in The Fortunate Shepherdess, a Pastoral Tale; in Three Cantos, in the Scotish Dialect. […], Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire: […] Francis Douglas, →OCLC, page 50:

     Now, by this time, the ſun begins to leam, / An' litt the hill-heads, wi' his morning beam, / An' birds, and beaſts, and fouk to be aſteer, / And ſtreams o' reek frae lumb heads to appear; […]

   • 1785 (date written), Robert Burns, “Halloween”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, stanza VIII, page 178:

     He bleez'd ovvre her, an' ſhe ovvre him, / As they vvad never mair part, / Till, fuff! he ſtarted up the lum, / An' Jean had e'en a ſair heart / To ſee't that night.

   • 1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 32:

     Sae, I wad not trust mysell with another look at poor Woodend, for the very blue reek that came out of the lum-head pat me in mind of the change of market-days with us.

   • 1865 March, [Robert Williams Buchanan], “Willie Baird: A Winter Idyll”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume XI, number 63, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 361:

     Down the broad lum / Came melting flakes that hiss'd upon the coal; / Under my eyelids blew the blinding smoke, / And for a time I sat like one bewitch'd, / Still as a stone.

   • 1877, G. S. L. [pseudonym; George Sinclair of Leith], chapter VI, in Shetland Fireside Tales; or, The Hermit of Trosswickness, Edinburgh: Edinburgh Publishing Company; London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., →OCLC, page 41:

     Two "lums" on the ridge served the double purpose of letting out the smoke and in the light. […] A new peat fire had been put on, and the day being calm, the lazy smoke seemed more inclined to remain inside than to go out the lums, as it ought to have done.

   • [1880], [George Jacque], “Weepie with Other Boys Fulfil Their Appointment”, in The Sweep’s Apprentice. […], Edinburgh: Religious Book and Tract Society of Scotland, […], →OCLC, page 18:

     "I heard a boy there speak of soot. Where is soot to be had?" / "Up lums, said Weepie, laughing. / […] / "But why not let it stay in the lums?" / "'Cause it wad come doon and splairge the parritch and the broth, and maybe set the lum on fire."

   • 1933 July, Lewis Grassic Gibbon [pseudonym; James Leslie Mitchell], “Cirrus”, in Cloud Howe, London: Jarrolds Publishers […], →OCLC, page 30:

     And out they would tramp, young Ewan in bed, the night black under their feet as cold pitch, about them the whistle and moan of trees till they cleared the Manse and went up by the Mains, with the smell of the dung from its hot cattle-court, and the smell of the burning wood in its lums.

   1. (specifically, mining) A ventilating chimney over the shaft of a mine.

Alternative forms

• lumb

Derived terms

• lang may yer lum reek

Translations

chimney — see chimney

ventilating chimney over the shaft of a mine

Etymology 2

Uncertain; perhaps related to Old Norse lundr (“clump of trees, grove; (rare) tree”) (compare Danish lund (“grove”), Norwegian Bokmål lund, Norwegian Nynorsk lund (“grove”), Swedish lund (“grove”)).

Noun

lum (plural lums)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) A grove or wood; also, a woody valley.

Etymology 3

Unknown. The Dictionary of the Scots Language (in their entry on Scots lum (“downpour”)) mentions a dialectal Middle English word lum(b) (“water hole in a mire; deep pool”) and suggests it might ultimately be related to lum (“chimney”).

Noun

lum (plural lums)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) A deep pool, especially one in a riverbed.
   • 1830 September 4, W. H. H., “The ‘Lums’ of Westmoreland”, in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, volume XVI, number 449, London: […] J[ohn] Limbird, […], →OCLC, page 188, column 2:

     The Kettle Wells are two lums, situated in Bonson's Wood, near Stanmore, which are not surpassed for Elysian beauty. The fall of the water into the first well is inconsiderable; but that continually empties itself into the lum below, over a smooth precipice of thirty feet.

Alternative forms

• lumb

Further reading

• chimney on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• -mul-, MLU, UML, Ulm

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *lubn-, from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“to love”). Cognate to Latin lubens (“willing, (be) fond of something”), and ultimately a doublet of lyp, lubi, lugat, and laps.

Adjective

lum (feminine lume)

1. happy, lucky

Ladin

Noun

lum f (plural lumes)

1. (Gherdëina) light

Livonian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *lumi.

Noun

lum

1. snow

Declension

Declension of lum (81)

	singular (ikšlug)	plural (pǟgiņlug)
nominative (nominatīv)	lum	lumūd
genitive (genitīv)	lum	lumūd
partitive (partitīv)	lūnda	lumīdi
dative (datīv)	lummõn	lumūdõn
instrumental (instrumentāl)	lumkõks	lumūdõks
illative (illatīv)	lummõ	lumīž
inessive (inesīv)	lumsõ lums	lumši
elative (elatīv)	lumstõ lumst	lumšti

Mizo

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *lum, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-l(u/i)m.

Adjective

lum

1. warm

References

• Grammar and Dictionary of the Lushai Language by J.H. Lorrain, Shillong 1898

Occitan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin lūmen, from Proto-Indo-European *léwksmn̥, derived from the root *lewk- (“bright”).

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

lum m (plural lums)

1. light
2. light source, such as a lamp or bulb

See also

• lutz

Scots

Etymology

Uncertain; perhaps compare obsolete Welsh llumon (“chimney”).

Noun

lum (plural lums)

1. chimney

Sumerian

Romanization

lum

1. Romanization of 𒈝 (lum)