▪ I. malm, n.
(mɑːm)
Also 4, 9 malme, 6 maund (?), 7 maume, mawme, mame, maln, 8 maum, mallan.
[OE. mealm-, in comb. mealmstán (see 3) and in the deriv. mealmiht sandy; cogn. w. ON. malm-r (Icel. málmr, OSw. malmber, Sw., Da. malm) ore, metal, Goth. malma masc., sand; a parallel formation from another grade of the root is OS., OHG. melm dust; f. root *mel-, mal- to grind: see meal n.]
1. a. A soft friable rock consisting largely of chalky material. b. The light loamy soil formed by the disintegration of this rock.
| 1477 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 189/2 The Vaynes called the Malme or Marle and Chalke, liyng comenly in the grounde. 1579–80 North Plutarch, Alexander (1595) 737 The earth spued out continually a kind of maund or chalkie clay somewhat lyquid. 1607 J. Norden Surv. Dial. v. 229 In part of Hamshire they haue another kind of earth,..the slub of the riuer of Auon, which they call Mawme. 1670 J. Smith Eng. Improv. Reviv'd 15 You shall lay or bestow 200 Cartload of the best slimy or fattest Marle or Mame on each or every Acre of Land. 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. iv. 69, I found a soft stone there-about called Maume, of a whitish colour. a 1697 Aubrey Nat. Hist. Wilts (1847) 107 The soile of the downes I take generally to be a white earth or mawme. 1697 View Penal Laws 239 It shall likewise be tryed and severed from Stones, Maln, Marle, and Chalk. 1719 Strachey in Phil. Trans. XXX. 969 These Clives vary much in Hardness, in some places being little harder than Malm or Loom. 1743 Needham ibid. XLII. 634 This Bed of Malm lies in a Valley, at the Foot of a long Ridge of Chalky Downs. 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. M ij, Mallan, this is of divers Colours,..and always Soft. 1787 G. White Selborne i. 2 The gardens..consist of a warm, forward, crumbling mould, called black malm. Ibid. 4 A range of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called white malm. 1825 Cobbett Rur. Rides (1853) 207 The lanes were very deep; the wet malme just about the colour of rye-meal mixed up with water. 1851 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XII. ii. 481 Marme, a white marl containing an admixture of clay. 1881 Whitehead Hops 21 A peculiar fertile clay, known locally as ‘malm’. 1885 Hinde in Phil. Trans. CLXXVI. 413 The beds..have been described under the local names of malm, firestone [etc.]. |
2. Short for malm-brick.
| 1858 Skyring's Builders' Prices (ed. 48) 66 Points to groins of common stocks..Ditto of Malms. 1881 Young Every Man his own Mechanic §1152 Malms are made of a finer clay. 1895 Oracle Encycl. I. 500/1 ‘Marls’ or ‘Malms’ is the name given to the best bricks. |
3. attrib.: malm-brick, the best kind of brick (so malm cutter, malm pavior, malm stock); malm-rock = sense 1 a; also Geol. = greensand 1 c; malm-stone = sense 1 a.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. iv. xiii. §5 Mon heardlice gnide þone hnescestan mealmstan æfter þæm [etc.]. 1824 Mech. Mag. No. 33. 77 Bricks..which are used for facing buildings, called malm stock Bricks. Ibid. 78 The earth and other ingredients, with which the soil for malm Bricks are composed. 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 292 The upper green-sand (‘firestone’, or ‘malm rock’, as it is sometimes called) is almost absent. 1842 Malm cutter [see cutter n.1 7]. 1843 Mech. Mag. XXXIX. 192 The difference between malm paviors and stocks was fifteen or twenty shillings per thousand. 1858 Skyring's Builders' Prices (ed. 48) 65 Picked stock facings..Seconds malm ditto. 1859 A. C. Ramsay Catal. Rock Spec. (1860) 53 A very fine..sandstone, locally termed ‘Malm-rock’. 1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. xviii. 349 ‘Malm rock’, a soft silicious substance, containing a large percentage of soluble silica. 1889 Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XLV. 406 In the more siliceous malmstones fragments of siliceous sponge-spicules are abundant. 1894 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. June 391 The persistence of the Malmstone over a very wide extent of the Upper Greensand of England is a noteworthy fact. |
▪ II. malm, a. dial.
(mɑːm, mɔːm)
Forms: 7–8 moam, 9 mome, 7–9 mawm, 7– maum.
[f. root of malm n.; for the sense cf. the cognate melch, mellow adjs.]
Mellow, soft.
| 1691 Ray N. Cy. Words (E.D.S.), Moam, vel Maum, maturomitis, mellow. 1788 Marshall Rural Econ. E. Yks. (E.D.S.), Maum, mellow, attended with a degree of dryness. 1829 Brockett Gloss. N. Cy. Words (ed. 2), Maum, Maumy, mellow, soft. Mome, soft, smooth, conjoining the idea of sweetness. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Maum, Mawm, (1) mellow. (2) Gentle, quiet. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Maum, Mome, or Maumy, mellow; insipid. |
▪ III. malm, v.1
(mɑːm)
Also 7 marm.
[f. malm n.]
trans. † a. To treat (land) with malm (obs.). b. To convert (clay) into artificial malm for brick-making; to cover (brick-earth) with artificial malm. Hence malmed ppl. a., ˈmalming vbl. n.
| 1619–21 Norden's Surv., Duchy of Lanc. in North Riding Rec. Soc. (1894) I. 24 Fra Scapphow till the west ende of Langhow Bran even suth til the nether syde marmed land. 1850 Dobson Manuf. Bricks & Tiles i. 26 The malm or malmed brick-earth..is turned over with the spade. Ibid. ii. 3 The brick-earth.. may be malmed, i.e. covered with artificial malm. 1876 A. B. Macdowall Brick in Encycl. Brit. IV. 280/1 The most common mode of preparing the clay, in the London district, is that of malming..an artificial malm is made by mixing chalk and clay, previously reduced to pulp, and allowing the mixture to consolidate by evaporation. |
▪ IV. † malm, v.2 Obs.
In 7 mawme, 9 maum.
[f. malm a.]
intr. To become soft.
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 107 Then they water it [earth], and lette it lye three or fower dayes to mawme. 1825 Jamieson, Maum, to soften and swell by means of rain, or from being steeped in water; to become mellow. Malt is said to maum, when steeped. |