fam

fam

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Fam.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Fam terms

Abbreviations

• (family, term of endearment): Clipping of family
• (familiarization): Clipping of familiarization

• IPA^(key): /fæm/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æm

fam (plural fams)

2. (informal) Clipping of family

   I'm gonna visit the fam.

4. (slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular, MLE, MTE, Internet slang) A term of endearment between friends; derived from "family" but not used between relatives.

   Hey fam, how you doin'? / Safe mate, safe.

   • 2019, “Going Through It” (track 6), in Ignorance Is Bliss, performed by Skepta:

     Gotta get more organised, 'cah fam, I hate rushing

   • 2019, Junauda Petrus, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them, Penguin, →ISBN, page 77:

     “Yo, Audre, so content warning: My mama is wearing booty shorts—or pum-pum shorts, whatever you call it—doing yoga in the backyard. She is very comfortable with herself and her body and all a that, so you been warned, fam.”

6. (colloquial, hospitality industry) Clipping of familiarization

   The tourist board organized fam junkets for travel agents.

   She arranged back-to-back fams and took her boyfriend.

• AFM, AMF, FMA, MAF, MFA

fam (plural befam)

1. man (adult male human)

Inherited from Latin famēs (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰH- (“to disappear”). Compare Occitan fam or Occitan hami.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈfam]

• Audio:

  (file)

fam f (uncountable)

1. hunger (desire for food)

   Synonym: gana

2. famine, starvation

• afamar

• famolenc

• “fam”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “fam”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “fam” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “fam” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• fàm (ORB, narrow)

Inherited from Latin famēs.

fam f (plural fams) (ORB, broad)

1. hunger

• faim in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• fam in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

fam

1. (reintegrationist norm) third-person plural present indicative of fazer

Borrowed from English pound.

• IPA^(key): /fâm/
  • (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [ɸâŋ]

fâm m (plural fàmā̀fàmai or fàmfàmai)

1. pound (currency used in the UK, obsolete in Nigeria)
2. (colloquial) 2 naira.

Derived from Dutch familienaam (“family name, surname”) and clipped.

fam (plural fam-fam)

1. A (regional) term for a surname or family name, particularly used in eastern Indonesia (e.g. Maluku, Minahasa, Timor).

   Synonym: marga

Used predominantly in eastern Indonesian communities historically influenced by Dutch colonial rule. Though not standard Indonesian, the term is regionally recognized to refer to a patrilineal clan or surname.

• “fam” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

From French femme (“woman; wife”), from Latin fēmina.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfam/

fam

1. woman
2. wife

• uóm

• Alfred W. Tobler (1987) Dicionário Crioulo Karipúna/Português Português/Crioulo Karípúna (in Karipúna Creole French), Summer Institute of Linguistics, page 8

From French femme (“woman”).

fam

1. woman

• Albert Valdman, Dictionary of Louisiana Creole

From French femme.

fam

1. (derogatory) woman

• Baker, Philip & Hookoomsing, Vinesh Y. 1987. Dictionnaire de créole mauricien. Morisyen – English – Français

fam

1. alternative form of fom

From Old Occitan fam, from Latin famēs (“hunger”).

• Audio (Languedoc):

  (file)

fam m (uncountable)

1. hunger

• fǣm

From Proto-Germanic *faimaz.

• IPA^(key): /fɑːm/

fām n

1. foam

Strong a-stem:

• fǣman
• fāmiġ

• Middle English: fom, fam, fome, foom, foome
  • English: foam
    • → Faroese: fómur
  • Scots: fame, faim, faem
• → Faroese: fám

fam oblique singular, f (oblique plural fans, nominative singular fam, nominative plural fans)

1. alternative form of fame

From Latin famēs.

• IPA^(key): /fam/

fam

1. hunger
   • c. 1110, Guilhèm de Peitieus, Canso:

     Quar senes lieys non puesc viure, / Tant ai pres de s'amor gran fam.

     For without her I cannot live, such great hunger have I for her love.

• Occitan: fam

• fom (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Vallader)

From Latin famēs.

fam f (usually uncountable)

1. (Puter) hunger

• IPA^(key): /vam/

fam

1. soft mutation of mam

Related to Persian فهم (fahm).

fam

1. intelligence