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English
Yams
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Portuguese inhame and Spanish ñame , likely from Wolof ñàmbi ( “ cassava ” ) or a related word. The term was spelled yam as early as 1657.
Noun
yam (plural yams )
Any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated.
The edible, starchy, tuberous root of that plant, a tropical staple food .
1958 , Chinua Achebe, chapter 4, in Things Fall Apart , New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959 , part 1, page 34 :Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed-yams. But he thought that one could not begin too early. Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.
( US ) A sweet potato ; a tuber from the species Ipomoea batatas .
( Scotland ) A potato .
( New Zealand ) An oca ; a tuber from the species Oxalis tuberosa .
( Malaysia , Singapore ) Taro .
An orange -brown colour , like the flesh of the yam. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
yam:
Usage notes
Careful use distinguishes yams (genus Dioscorea ) from sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas ), while casual American use conflates these.
Derived terms
Translations
any Dioscorea vine
Ajië: mëu
Aklanon: ubi
Arabic: يَام m ( yām )
Armenian: դիոսկոր ( dioskor )
Assamese: কাঠ আলু ( kath alu )
Bole: doya
Bulgarian: ямс m ( jams )
Burmese: ပီလောပီနံ (my) ( pilau:pinam )
Catalan: nyam m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 山藥 / 山药 (zh) ( shānyào )
Czech: jam (cs) m
Danish: yams c
Dutch: yam (nl) m , yamplant , yamswortel (nl) m , jam (nl) m
Esperanto: ignamo
Farefare: busre , busa pl
Fijian: uvi
Finnish: jamssi (fi)
French: igname (fr) f
Georgian: იამსი ( iamsi )
German: Yamswurzel (de) f , Yams (de) f
Haitian Creole: yanm
Hausa: aduru , doya (ha)
Hawaiian: uhi
Hindi: रतालू (hi) m ( ratālū ) , आलू (hi) m ( ālū )
Hungarian: jamsz (hu) , jam (hu)
Ido: inyamo (io)
Indonesian: ubi (id)
Italian: igname m
Japanese: 山芋 ( やまいも, yamaimo ) , 自然薯 (ja) ( じねんじょ, jinenjo ) , ヤマノイモ (ja) ( yamanoimo )
Javanese: téla rambat
Karekare: dauya
Kazakh: тәтті картоп ( tättı kartop )
Kongo: mbala
Korean: 마 (ko) ( ma )
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: سەڤەتالکا ھیندی ( sevetalka hîndî ) , بنەریا ھیندی ( binerdiya hîndî )
Lao: ເຜີ່ມ ( phœ̄m )
Latvian: dioskorėja f
Lithuanian: dioskorėjos
Luhya: enduma
Malagasy: oviala (mg)
Malay: ubi (ms)
Malayalam: കാച്ചിൽ (ml) ( kāccil )
Mansaka: obi
Maori: uhi , uwhi
Mongolian: йам ( jam )
Moore: busa , busri , busa pl
Motu: maho
Norwegian:
Bokmål: jams m
Nynorsk: jams m
Nupe: eci
Polish: pochrzyn m
Portuguese: inhame (pt) m
Romanian: ignamă (ro) f
Russian: ямс (ru) m ( jams )
Spanish: ñame (es) m , ñamera f ( Dominican Republic )
Swahili: nduma (sw) , kiazi kikuu
Swedish: jams (sv)
Tagalog: tugi
Tajik: ям ( yam )
Thai: มัน (th) ( man ) , สกุลกลอย ( sàgun gloi )
Turkish: tatlı patates (tr)
Uzbek: shirin kartoshka
Vietnamese: khoai (vi)
Welsh: iam m
Western Bukidnon Manobo: uvi
Xârâcùù: ku
Yoruba: iṣu , iyán (pounded)
its edible root
Big Nambas: pai
Bulgarian: ямс m ( jams )
Central Dusun: guol
Dutch: yam (nl) m , yamswortel (nl) m , jam (nl) m
Finnish: jamssi (fi)
Hindi: रतालू (hi) m ( ratālū ) , आलू (hi) m ( ālū )
Hungarian: jamsz (hu) , jam (hu) , jamszgyökér (hu) , jamgyökér
Igbo: ji (ig)
Irish: ionam m
Lao: please add this translation if you can
Malay: keladi (ms)
Malayalam: കാച്ചിൽ (ml) ( kāccil )
Maori: uhi , uwhi , ngangarangi
Motu: maho
Navajo: nahooyéí
Plautdietsch: Jams f
Portuguese: inhame (pt) m
Spanish: ñame (es) m , ame (es) m ( Guatemala ) , yame m ( El Salvador ) , ñangate m ( Mexico )
Swahili: nduma (sw)
Thai: มันเสา ( man-sǎo ) , ฮ่วยซัว ( hûay sua )
Turkish: yam (tr)
Vietnamese: sắn dây (vi)
Yoruba: iṣu
Etymology 2
Alternative form of hjem . Likely caused by influence from Old Norse heim ( “ home, homewards ” ) , the accusative form of heimr ( “ abode, world, land ” ) , from Proto-Germanic *haimaz . More at home .
Noun
yam (plural yams )
( regional , Cumberland) Home .
Etymology 3
Verb
yam
Pronunciation spelling of am .
1904 , Carrie Hunt Latta, “The Last Day of Schol”, in The Reader Magazine , volume IV, Indianopolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 291 :“Stay, jailer, stay, and hear my woe,” repeating again and again, very softly, the line at the end of each stanza, “I am not mad, I am not mad.” Except she sang it: “I yam not mad, I yam not mad.”
Etymology 4
Ultimately from Fula nyaamude ( “ to eat ” ) or a cognate Fula-Wolof term.
Verb
yam (third-person singular simple present yams , present participle yamming , simple past and past participle yammed )
( UK , slang ) To eat.
Etymology 5
Apparently a variation of jam ( “ dunk ” , verb ) .
Verb
yam (third-person singular simple present yams , present participle yamming , simple past and past participle yammed )
( especially basketball ) To dunk on ; to beat humiliatingly.
Further reading
See also
Anagrams
Aleut
Noun
yam
( Eastern ) yesterday
References
Azerbaijani
Etymology
See yamçı .
Pronunciation
Noun
yam (definite accusative yamı , plural yamlar )
( historical ) mail staging post
Declension
Derived terms
Further reading
Beja
Noun
yám
water
References
Klaus and Charlotte Wedekind, Abuzeinab Musa, Beja Pedagogical Grammar (2005)
Etudes berbères et chamito-sémitiques: mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse (2000, →ISBN , page 38
Václav Blažek, A Lexicostatistical comparison of Omotic languages , in In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory: Essays in the four fields of anthropology , page 122
Buwal
Etymology
Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn .
Noun
yam
water
References
Cuvok
Etymology
Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn .
Noun
yam
water
References
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from English yam .
Pronunciation
Noun
yam m (plural yams or yammen , diminutive yammetje n )
yam , a tropical vine
its edible root
Synonyms
Lashi
Pronunciation
Postposition
yam
beside
References
Hkaw Luk (2017 ) A grammatical sketch of Lacid , Chiang Mai: Payap University (master thesis)
Merey
Etymology
Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn .
Noun
yam
water
References
Richard Gravina (compiler); Alan Boydell, Elie Doumok (facilitators), Merey lexicon (2003, SIL)
Middle English
Pronoun
yam
( Northern, northern East Midlands ) Alternative form of þem ( “ them ” )
Mofu-Gudur
Etymology
Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn .
Noun
yam
water
References
North Giziga
Etymology
Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn .
Noun
yam
water
References
Etudes berbères et chamito-sémitiques: mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse (2000, →ISBN , page 38
Pnar
Etymology
From Proto-Khasian *jaːm , from Proto-Mon-Khmer *jaam . Cognate with Khasi ïam , Blang jàm , Khmu jaːm , Mang ɲaːm¹ , Mon ယာံ , Khmer យំ ( yum ) .
Pronunciation
Verb
yam
to cry , to weep
South Giziga
Etymology
Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn .
Noun
yam
water
References
Etudes berbères et chamito-sémitiques: mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse (2000, →ISBN , page 38
Tok Pisin
Etymology
From English yam .
Noun
yam
yam
Yimchungru Naga
Etymology
From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-j(i/u)m .
Noun
yam
house
Zulgo-Gemzek
Etymology
Ultimately from Proto-Chadic *ymn .
Noun
yam
water
References