Buzz
“Call me mint jelly, because I’m evading capture!”
The absence of a B at the end of the word lam implies that the phrase "being on the lam"—meaning to flee from the law—has origins not tied to farm life. But where did this strange saying originate?
The term on the lam first appeared in the late 19th century as to do a lam, a slang term defined in a 1897 issue of Popular Science simply as “to flee.” (At the same time, it’s noted that Victorian criminals were already taking kips when napping, rubbernecking when eavesdropping, and delivering lengthy spiels instead of short speeches). By the early 1900s, to do a lam evolved into to go on the lam, which began appearing in print and has remained the same ever since.
The verb lam can be traced back to the late 16th century. The Oxford English Dictionary finds it in a dictionary from the mid-1590s, alongside an older form, belam. Back then, the meaning of lam was quite different: it referred to “beating” or “thrashing” someone violently in 16th century English.
In this context, lam may be related to lame (suggesting that it originally referred to beating someone to the point of injury). The word has survived in the term lambaste, which today means “to scold” or “criticize,” but in the 17th century also meant “to strike.” The origins of the word are unclear, but it might have roots in the Old Norse word lemja, meaning “to strike” or “to hit.” Despite the uncertainty, how did a word meaning violent beating evolve into one associated with evading the law?
Lam maintained its original meaning until the 19th century when it began to fade from regular use. It resurfaced in British (and later American) schoolyard slang, particularly in the mid-1800s. Terms like lamming out or lamming into someone were commonly used in reference to schoolyard fights and scuffles. It’s likely that the connection to schoolboys running away from teachers before they were caught or the victim fleeing before the first punch was thrown led to lamming taking on the meaning of “escaping” or “absconding.”
In this new sense, lam was first used in print in 1886, in Allan Pinkerton’s memoir, Thirty Years A Detective. Pinkerton, the Scottish-born founder of the famous Pinkerton National Detective Agency, describes the detailed operations of a pickpocketing gang:
"After selecting their victim or 'mark,' who is withdrawing a large sum of money from the bank, one member of the gang positions himself inside the bank to watch every move of the target … In a flash, and with a smooth motion that draws no attention, the 'tool' turns slightly, almost facing the man, but standing on his right side. The 'tool' usually carries a coat over his arm to conceal his actions; with the hidden hand, he works under the man’s coat, taking the wallet or package from the top, lifting it completely out of the pocket, then drawing it under his own coat to complete the robbery. If he’s slow in reaching the wallet and notices that the front men [two other gang members] are getting uneasy, he calls out 'stick!' This signals that the operation will succeed shortly and that the others should stay in place. After securing the wallet, the 'tool' chirps like a bird or says 'lam!' This signals to let the man go and get out of the way. The word 'lam' is also used when a theft is unsuccessful, indicating that further attempts are futile."
This is where expressions like doing a lam first appeared in the late 1880s, and since then, criminals have been going on the lam without pause.
