adam | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

32 entries found.

masc. proper name, Biblical name of the first man, progenitor of the human race, from Hebrew adam "man," literally "(the one formed from the) ground" (Hebrew adamah "ground"); compare Latin homo "man," humanus "human," humus "earth, ground, soil."

The name was also used to signify the evil inherent in human nature (as a consequence of Adam's fall), and other qualities (nakedness, gardening) associated with the biblical Adam. Adam's ale "water" is from 1640s. To not know (someone) from Adam "not know him at all" is first recorded 1784. The pet form of the name in Middle English was Addy, hence Addison; other old pet forms (Adkin, Adcock) also survive in surnames.

pre-adamite (n.)

also preadamite, "one who lived before Adam," 1660s, from pre- + Adam + -ite. Originally in reference to the supposed progenitors of the Gentiles, based on a belief that the biblical Adam was the first parent only of the Jews and their kin.

Adamite (n.)

"human being, descendant of Adam" the Biblical first man, 1630s, from Adam + -ite (1). Used from 1620s in reference to perfectionist sects or groups that practice nudism (or, as a 1657 poem has it, "Cast off their petticoats and breeches"), recalling the state of Adam before the Fall. They sprang up 2c. in North Africa, 14c.-15c. in central Europe, and occasionally elsewhere since. Related: Adamic; Adamitic; Adamitism.

Adam's apple (n.)

bulge in the throat caused by the cartilage of the larynx, 1731, corresponding to Latin pomum Adami, perhaps an inexact translation of Hebrew tappuah haadam, literally "man's swelling," from ha-adam "the man" + tappuah "anything swollen." The reference is to the legend that a piece of the forbidden fruit (commonly believed to have been an apple) that Eve gave Adam stuck in his throat. It is more prominent in men than women. The term is mentioned early 15c. as the name of an actual oriental and Mediterranean fruit, a variety of lime with an indentation fancied to resemble the marks of Adam's teeth.

Lilith

female evil spirit, in medieval Hebrew folklore the first wife of Adam, from Hebrew Lilith, from Akkadian Lilitu, which is connected by folk etymology with Hebrew laylah "night."

Seth

masc. proper name, Biblical third son of Adam, literally "set, appointed," from Hebrew Sheth, from shith "to put, set." The Gnostic sect of Sethites (2c.) believed Christ was a reappearance of Seth, whom they venerated as the first spiritual man.

fig (n.2)

"dress, equipment," 1823, in phrase in full fig; hence "condition, state of preparedness" (1883). Said to be an abbreviation of figure (n.), perhaps from the abbreviation of that word in plate illustrations in books, etc. According to others, from the fig leaves of Adam and Eve. Related: Figgery.

Abel

masc. proper name, in the Old Testament the second son of Adam and Eve, from Hebrew Hebhel, literally "breath," also "vanity;" "so called from his short life and sudden death" [Thayer].

Paleozoic (adj.)

in reference to the geological era between the Precambrian and the Mesozoic, a geological series characterized by the earliest record of modern life forms, 1838, coined by Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873) from paleo- "ancient" + Greek zoe "life" (from PIE root *gwei- "to live") + -ic.

chiasmus (n.)

in grammar, "the arrangement of repeated, parallel, or contrasted words or phrases in pairs with inversion of word order," 1850, Latinized from Greek khiasmos "a placing crosswise, diagonal arrangement" (see chi).

Adam, first of men,

To first of women, Eve.

["Paradise Lost"]

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