seam

seam

See also: seám

English

a flat seam in fabric (sense 1)

seams of coal (sense 3)

solderless seam (sense 5)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /siːm/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Homophones: seem, seme
• Rhymes: -iːm

Etymology 1

From Middle English seem, seme, from Old English sēam (“seam”), from Proto-West Germanic *saum, from Proto-Germanic *saumaz (“that which is sewn”).

Alternative forms

• seme (obsolete)

Noun

seam (plural seams)

1. (sewing) A folded-back and stitched piece of fabric; especially, the stitching that joins two or more pieces of fabric.
   • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

     Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.

2. A suture.
3. (geology) A thin stratum, especially of an economically viable material such as coal or mineral.
4. (cricket) The stitched equatorial seam of a cricket ball; the sideways movement of a ball when it bounces on the seam.
5. (construction, nautical) A joint formed by mating two separate sections of materials.

   Seams can be made or sealed in a variety of ways, including adhesive bonding, hot-air welding, solvent welding, using adhesive tapes, sealant, etc.

6. A line or depression left by a cut or wound; a scar; a cicatrix.
7. (figurative) A line of junction; a joint.
   • 1697, Joseph Addison, Essay on Virgil's Georgics

     Precepts should be so finely wrought together […] that no coarse seam may discover where they join.

Derived terms

• seam carving
• seamless
• seamster
• seamstress

 

Translations

folded back and stitched piece of fabric

Arabic: دَرْز‎ m (darz) Armenian: կար (hy) (kar) Bashkir: йөй (yöy), ек (yek) Belarusian: шво n (švo) Bulgarian: шев (bg) m (šev) Chinese: Mandarin: 接縫／接缝 (zh) (jiēfèng) Czech: šev (cs) m Danish: søm (da) c Dutch: , naad (nl) m Finnish: sauma (fi) French: couture (fr) Friulian: cusidure f Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Saum (de) m, Naht (de) f Greek: Ancient: ῥαφή f (rhaphḗ) Hebrew: תפר‎ (he) m (téfer) Hungarian: varrat (hu), varrás (hu) Italian: cucitura (it) f Japanese: 縫い目 (ぬいめ, nuime) Lithuanian: siūlė̃ (lt) f Luxembourgish: Sam m Macedonian: шев m (šev) Manx: whaaley m Maori: maurua, morua, hiki Norwegian: Bokmål: søm (no) m Nynorsk: saum m Old English: sēam (ang) m Ottoman Turkish: دیكیش‎ (dikiş) Persian: درز‎ (fa) (darz) Plautdietsch: Soom m Polish: szew (pl) m Portuguese: costura (pt) f Romanian: cusătură (ro) f Russian: шов (ru) m (šov) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ша̏в m Roman: šȁv (sh) m Sicilian: custura (scn) f Slovak: šev m Slovene: šiv (sl) m Spanish: costura (es) f Swedish: söm (sv) c Thai: ตะเข็บ (dtà-kèp) Ukrainian: шов m (šov) Venetian: cuxidura f Walloon: costeure (wa) f

suture

Armenian: կար (hy) (kar) Bulgarian: шев (bg) m (šev) Chinese: Mandarin: 縫／缝 (zh) (féng), 縫合／缝合 (zh) (fénghé) Danish: sutur c, søm (da) c Finnish: ommel (fi), tikkaus French: suture (fr) f Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Naht (de) f Hungarian: varrat (hu) Italian: sutura (it) f Japanese: 縫合 (ja) (ほうごう, hōgō) Latin: sūtūra f Manx: whaaley m Polish: szew (pl) m Portuguese: sutura (pt) f Russian: шов (ru) m (šov) Spanish: sutura (es) Walloon: costeure (wa) f, rakeudaedje m

thin stratum of mineral

Bulgarian: жила (bg) f (žila) Finnish: suoni (fi), juonne French: veine (fr) f German: Flöz (de) n, Schicht (de) f Irish: síog f Italian: vena (it) f, filone (it) m Portuguese: filão (pt) m, veio (pt) m Spanish: veta (es) f Ukrainian: пласт m (plast), про́шарок m (próšarok) Welsh: gwythïen (cy) f, haen(en) f, llygad (cy) m (of slate)

stitched seam of a cricket ball

a joint formed by mating two separate sections of a material

Bulgarian: сглобка (bg) f (sglobka) French: jointure (fr) f Maori: hiki Norwegian: Bokmål: sammenføyning m or f Portuguese: junta (pt)

a line or depression left by a cut or wound

Bulgarian: белег (bg) m (beleg) French: cicatrice (fr) f Irish: éasc m Portuguese: cicatriz (pt) f Spanish: cicatriz (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Dutch: (please verify) zoom (nl) m Georgian: (please verify) ნაოჭი (naoč̣i) Italian: (please verify) cucitura (it) f, costura Korean: (please verify) 솔기 (ko) (solgi)

Etymology 2

From the noun seam.

Verb

seam (third-person singular simple present seams, present participle seaming, simple past and past participle seamed)

1. To put together with a seam.
   • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Skeleton in Armor:

     Thus, seamed with many scars, / Bursting these prison bars, / Up to its native stars / My soul ascended!

2. To make the appearance of a seam in, as in knitting a stocking; hence, to knit with a certain stitch, like that in such knitting.
3. To mark with a seam or line; to scar.
   • 1725, Homer; [Alexander Pope], transl., “Book 4”, in The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume V, London: […] Bernard Lintot, OCLC 8736646:

     Seam'd o'er with wounds which his own sabre gave.

4. To crack open along a seam.
   • 1880, Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

     Later their lips began to parch and seam.

5. (cricket) Of the ball, to move sideways after bouncing on the seam.
6. (cricket) Of a bowler, to make the ball move thus.

Etymology 3

From Old English sēam (“a burden”), from Latin sagma (“saddle”).

Noun

seam (plural seams)

1. (historical) An old English measure of grain, containing eight bushels.
2. (historical) An old English measure of glass, containing twenty-four weys of five pounds, or 120 pounds.
   • 1952, L. F. Salzman, Building in England, p. 175.

     As white glass was 6s. the 'seam', containing 24 'weys' (pise, or pondera) of 5 lb., and 2½ lb. was reckoned sufficient to make one foot of glazing, the cost of glass would be 1½d. leaving 2½d. for labour.

Etymology 4

From Middle English seym (“grease”), from Old French saim (“fat”). Compare French saindoux (“lard”).

Alternative forms

• saim

Noun

seam (uncountable)

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) Grease; tallow; lard.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii]:

     shall the proud lord
     That bastes his arrogance with his own seam
     And never suffers matter of the world

   • 1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:

     scour their rusty shields with seam

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Further reading

• seam on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• seam (sewing) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• hemming and seaming on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• AMEs, ASME, Ames, EMAS, MSAE, Mesa, Same, eams, mase, meas, meas., mesa, same

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Old English

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *saum, from Proto-Germanic *saumaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sæ͜ɑːm/

Noun

sēam m (nominative plural sēamas)

1. seam

Declension

Declension of seam (strong a-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	sēam	sēamas
accusative	sēam	sēamas
genitive	sēames	sēama
dative	sēame	sēamum

Derived terms

• sēamere
• sēamestre

Descendants

• Middle English: seem, ceem, ceme, sem, seme, seyme
  • English: seam
  • Scots: seam