Join free

lum

English · Français

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

lum¹

  • /lʌm/ US, UK, Scotland

Rhymes with -ʌm

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Scots lum, Early Scots lumb; further etymology uncertain, but probably from Cumbric *lümon, related to Welsh llumon (“chimney”) (obsolete), from Proto-Celtic *loimono. Possibly at least influenced by Old French lum (“light”), lume (“cooking fire”) (compare French lumière (“light; cavity or channel within a tube or tubular organ, lumen; opening”)), from Latin lūmen (“light; light source; opening through which light can penetrate such as an air-hole or window; opening or orifice in a water-pipe or funnel”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”).

noun lums · lumb

  1. Northern England, Scotland A chimney; also, the top part of a chimney. Now, by this time, the ſun begins to leam, / An' litt the hill-heads, wi' his morning beam, / An' birds, and beaſts, and fouk to be aſteer, / And ſtreams o' reek frae lumb heads to appear; […]
  2. Northern England, Scotland, specifically A ventilating chimney over the shaft of a mine.

lum²

  • /lʌm/ US, UK, Scotland

Rhymes with -ʌm

Where it comes from

Uncertain; perhaps related to Old Norse lundr (“clump of trees, grove; (rare) tree”) (compare Danish lund (“grove”), Norwegian Bokmål lund, Norwegian Nynorsk lund (“grove”), Swedish lund (“grove”)).

noun lums

  1. Northern England, Scotland, dialectal A grove or wood; also, a woody valley.

lum³

  • /lʌm/ US, UK, Scotland

Rhymes with -ʌm

Where it comes from

Unknown. The Dictionary of the Scots Language (in their entry on Scots lum (“downpour”)) mentions a dialectal Middle English word lum(b) (“water hole in a mire; deep pool”) and suggests it might ultimately be related to lum (“chimney”).

noun lums · lumb

  1. Northern England, Scotland, dialectal A deep pool, especially one in a riverbed. The Kettle Wells are two lums, situated in Bonson's Wood, near Stanmore, which are not surpassed for Elysian beauty. The fall of the water into the first well is inconsiderable; but that continually empties itself into the lum below, over a smooth precipice of thirty feet.

Lum⁴

Where it comes from

As an English surname, from Middle English Lumb, from Old English Lumm, from lumm (“pool”). Analyzable as being from English lum (“pool”).

As a Chinese surname, from Cantonese 林 (lam4).

proper noun Lums

  1. An English surname transferred from the place name. Alternative forms: Limb, Lumb, Lumm
  2. A surname from Chinese.

Lum⁵

Where it comes from

Clipping of Columbus.

proper noun Lums

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Columbus.

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"lum." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/lum. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

lum. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/lum

Chicago

"lum." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/lum.

BibTeX
@misc{lum_2026,
  title = {lum},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/lum},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}