lemming

Wikispecies

From Danish and Norwegian lemming, from Old Norse lómundr, læmingi, læmingr (“lemming”), perhaps from Sami luomek. Sense 2 derives from a longstanding myth that they exhibit so much herd mentality that populations jump off cliffs to their deaths together.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lɛm.ɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛmɪŋ

lemming (plural lemmings)

1. A small Arctic and Subarctic rodent from any of six genera of similar rodents.
   • 1876, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Geographical Distribution of Animals, chapter 2, page 18:

     The well-known lemmings, in severe winters, at long intervals, move down from the mountains of Scandinavia in immense numbers, crossing lakes and rivers, eating their way through haystacks, and surmounting every obstacle till they reach the sea, whence very few return.

2. (figuratively) Any member of a group given to conformity or groupthink, especially a group poised to follow a leader off a cliff.
   • 2004, Ilse Hobbs, Jan Havenga, A Practical Guide to Strategy, →ISBN, page 127:

     Lemmings are strongly cohesive, but could be, in organisational terms, highly destructive for the business.

   • 2014, M.P. Fedunkiw, A Degree of Futility‎^[1], page 61:

     Like a lemming, I followed the crowd, got to the right line and was concentrating hard when queried by the customs officer.

• sable mouse

From Danish and Norwegian lemming, from Old Norse lómundr, læmingi, læmingr (“lemming”), perhaps from Sami luomek.

• Audio:

  (file)

lemming m (plural lemmingen or lemmings, diminutive lemminkje n)

1. lemming (rodent)

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Lemming”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.

• glimmen

From Danish and Norwegian lemming, from Old Norse lómundr, læmingi, læmingr (“lemming”), perhaps from Sami luomek.

• IPA^(key): /lɛ.miŋ/ ~ /le.miŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

lemming m (plural lemmings)

1. lemming

• “lemming”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English lemming.

lemming m (plural lemmings)

1. alternative form of lémingue

From Danish and Norwegian lemming, from Old Norse lómundr, læmingi, læmingr (“lemming”), perhaps from Sami luomek.

lemming m (plural lemmings)

1. lemming (rodent)