lemming
(ˈlɛmɪŋ)
Also 8 leming, 9 leeming.
[a. Norw. lemming; other forms are Sw. lemmel, 16th c. lemb (pl. lemmar), Norw. lemende, limende; cf. Lapp. luomek (Ihre).]
1. a. A small arctic rodent, Myodes lemmus, of the family Muridæ, resembling a field-mouse, about 6 in. long, with a short tail, remarkable for its prolific character and its annual migrations to the sea. Also lemming-mouse, lemming-rat.
| [1555 Olaus Magnus Hist. de Gentibus Septentr. xviii. xx. 617 Quod..in Noruegia..euenit, scilicet vt bestiolæ quadrupedes, Lemmar, vel Lemmus dictæ, magnitudine soricis, pelle varia, per tempestates & repentinos imbres è cœlo decidant.] 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 727 There are certaine little Foure-footed beastes called Lemmar, or Lemmus, which in tempestuous and rainy weather, do seeme to fall downe from the cloudes. 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. 56 note, A kind of Mice, (they call Leming..) in Norway, which eat up every green thing. They come in such prodigious Numbers, that they fancy them to fall from the Clouds. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. II. 283 The leming..is often seen to pour down in myriads from the Northern Mountains. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) I. 376 The Lemming Rat. These animals feed entirely on vegetables. 1822–56 De Quincey Confess. (1862) 69 Under such a compulsion does the leeming traverse its mysterious path. 1862 H. Marryat Year in Sweden II. 225 In Elfdal, says the chronicler, on the 2nd of August 1635 there rained from the sky a fall of lemmings. 1884 Gurney & Myers in 19th Cent. May 807 The migratory instinct that carries the lemming into the deep sea. |
b. Used fig. to denote a person bent on a headlong rush, often towards disaster. Also attrib. or quasi-adj.; lemming-like adj.
| [1959 M. Gilbert Blood & Judgement iii. 35 Home⁓going office workers..potent in mass as a lemming migration.] 1968 M. Bragg Without City Wall i. x. 116 To opt out..in a way, you could say that was just as lemming⁓like as what you're doing. 1969 D. F. Horrobin Sci. is God i. 9 This lemming unconcern may have dangerous consequences. 1969 New Yorker 12 Apr. 61/2 In Dr. Langseth's view, going to the moon is an impulse in⁓grained in the national character, as though Americans were astronautical lemmings. 1970 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 15 Feb. 12/1 No one had the slightest idea of what was happening, yet all had joined in the mad lemming⁓like scramble for the waterfront. 1970 P. Moyes Who saw her Die? xx. 256 It was Saturday, the lemming rush was in full spate, the suburbs pouring their millions in bus, tube, train and car into the central sea. 1972 ‘J. Bell’ Death of Poison-Tongue viii. 80 Lemmings..was only the present vogue word..to describe a collection of mindless people moved by a common purpose. 1972 Guardian 11 Dec. 12/6 The only way to stop multiple motorway crashes is by educating us all in roadcraft so that our individual intelligence becomes more powerful than our lemming instincts. 1975 Sunday Times 16 Feb. 51/1 Last week there were ample signs that the lemming-like rush to pile in at any price was wearing itself out. |
2. Applied to other rodents of the same or allied genera. banded lemming (Lydekker, Nat. Hist. 1894 III. 136); collared or Snowy lemming (Riverside Nat. Hist. 1885 V. 105), Cuniculus torquatus.