Lam
Lam is an informal verb and noun in American English slang, primarily denoting to beat or thrash someone severely, or a hasty escape or flight, especially from law enforcement or pursuit, as in the idiomatic expression "on the lam."[1][2] The term's usage as flight emerged in the late 19th century among criminals and in popular fiction, evoking rapid evasion to avoid capture or punishment, while its earlier sense of striking derives from Scottish dialect influences on informal beatings.[3] Though less common today outside literary or noir contexts, "lam" persists in phrases describing fugitives, underscoring a cultural archetype of desperate flight rooted in empirical patterns of criminal behavior and self-preservation rather than romanticized narratives.[4][5]People
Surnames
The surname Lam primarily originates from the Chinese character 林 (Lín in Mandarin, Lam in Cantonese), which translates to "forest" or "woods".[6] This form is common among Cantonese-speaking Chinese populations and their diaspora, with many bearers tracing ancestry to Guangdong and Fujian provinces in southern China.[7] In Vietnamese contexts, Lam is an anglicized variant of Lâm, borrowed from the same Chinese surname 林.[8] Less frequently, Lam represents the Cantonese romanization of the Chinese surname 藍 (Lan), meaning "blue".[8] In European traditions, particularly Dutch and North German, it can derive from a shortened form of the personal name Lambert or serve as a topographic name for a house marked by a lamb symbol.[9] Globally, the surname is most prevalent in Asia, where 77% of bearers reside, including 72% in Southeast Asia and a concentration in Viet-Asia regions such as Vietnam and Malaysia.[6] Significant overseas communities exist in the United States and Macau, often linked to historical migration from southern China.[7] In the 2010 U.S. Census, 55,554 individuals reported the surname Lam.[10]People with the surname Lam
- Carrie Lam (born May 13, 1957), served as the fifth Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2022, after being elected on March 26, 2017.[11]
- Wifredo Lam (December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), was a Cuban painter of Chinese, African, and Spanish descent, renowned for works like The Jungle (1943) that fused Afro-Cuban motifs with surrealism and cubism during his time in Paris and post-World War II periods.[12][13]
- Ringo Lam (born Lam Ling-Tung; 1955 – December 29, 2018), was a Hong Kong film director and screenwriter known for action thrillers such as City on Fire (1987), which influenced Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, and for his gritty style in the Hong Kong New Wave cinema of the 1980s and 1990s.[14][15]
- David K. Lam (born 1943), is a Chinese-American engineer and entrepreneur who founded Lam Research Corporation in 1980 in Santa Clara, California, pioneering automated plasma etching systems for semiconductor manufacturing and later establishing the David Lam Group for high-tech investments.[16][17]
- Sandy Lam (born April 26, 1966), is a Hong Kong singer, actress, and producer with a career spanning nearly four decades, known for Cantopop hits like "At Least You Still Have Me" and multilingual performances in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Japanese, rising to fame in the 1980s.[18][19]
- George Lam (born October 12, 1947), is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer, songwriter, music producer, and actor with over five decades in the industry, debuting in the 1970s with hits blending Western influences and achieving enduring popularity through albums and film appearances.[20]