Lame

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /leɪm/

Definitions

1. Unable to walk properly due to injury or disability in a limb ; lacking strength, force, or effectiveness ; an excuse or explanation that is unpersuasive or insufficient
2. Having impaired movement in a leg or foot ; showing weakness or poor impact ; a justification that fails to convince or seem valid
3. Disabled in one or more limbs resulting in difficulty walking ; feeble and lacking power ; a reason given that does not adequately explain or defend something

Etymology: The adjective "lame" has two separate origins that happen to have landed on the same spelling. The sense of being unable to walk properly comes from Old English "lama," which goes back to a Germanic root meaning "to tire" or "to break," an idea of a limb weakened or broken. Its Middle English form kept that meaning, and the sense of "feeble and lacking power" grew naturally from it. The sense of an excuse that fails to hold up is a different story. It comes from Middle French "lame," meaning a thin plate or blade, which descends from Latin "lāmina," the same source as the English "lamina." Something lame in this sense is thin and easily broken, like a weak sheet of metal, and the idea of a flimsy argument follows from that image. The two words are doublets only in the sense that they share a Latin root, yet they reached English by entirely separate routes.

Synonyms: disabled, crippled, weak, ineffectual, unconvincing

Antonyms: strong, capable, persuasive, convincing, effective