yam

• (UK, US) enPR: yăm, IPA^(key): /jæm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æm

From Portuguese inhame and Spanish ñame, possibly from the Fula nyami (“to eat”). The term was spelled yam as early as 1657.

yam (plural yams)

1. Any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated.
2. The edible, starchy, tuberous root of that plant, a tropical staple food.
3. (US) A sweet potato; a tuber from the species Ipomoea batatas.
4. (Scotland) Potato.
5. (New Zealand) A oca; a tuber from the species Oxalis tuberosa.
6. (Malaysia, Singapore) Taro.
7. An orange-brown colour, like the flesh of the yam. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   yam colour:  

Careful use distinguishes yams (genus Dioscorea) from sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), while casual American use conflates these.

• Chinese yam
• purple yam
• wild yam
• yamless
• yamberry

Alternative form of hjem. Likely caused by Old Norse influence from Old Norse heim (“home, homewards”), the accusative form of heimr (“abode, world, land”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz. More at home.

yam (plural yams)

1. (regional, Cumberland) home

• Amy, MYA, May, Mya, may, mya

yam

1. (Eastern) yesterday

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn.

yam

1. water

• Mélanie Viljoen, Michael Viljoen, Pascal Konai, François Mbouvai, Ernest Koyang, Benjamin Deli, Précis d’orthographe pour la langue buwal - Édition préliminaire (2009, Yaoundé, SIL Cameroun)

Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn.

yam

1. water

• ASJP
• Olga Stolbova, Chadic Lexical Database, issue II (2007): yam "water"

• IPA^(key): /jɑm/

• Audio

  (file)

yam m (plural yams or yammen, diminutive yammetje n)

1. yam, a tropical vine
2. its edible root

• jam
• yamswortel

Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn.

yam

1. water

• Richard Gravina (compiler); Alan Boydell, Elie Doumok (facilitators), Merey lexicon (2003, SIL)

yam

1. Alternative form of þem

• “theim (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 1 June 2018.

Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn.

yam

1. water

• Topics in Mofu-Gudur (SIL)

Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn.

yam

1. water

• Etudes berbères et chamito-sémitiques: mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse (2000, →ISBN, page 38

Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn.

yam

1. water

• Etudes berbères et chamito-sémitiques: mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse (2000, →ISBN, page 38

From English yam.

yam

1. yam

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-j(i/u)m.

yam

1. house

Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn.

yam

1. water

• An Outline Sketch of Gemzek Grammar
• An Overview of Gemzek Narrative Discourse Features