Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗noun
A fraudulent or dishonest deal. A swindle. · Something that is promoted using scams.
verb
Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventoryTo defraud or embezzle. · To seek out a partner for casual sex; to hit on.
US American carnival slang of uncertain origin. Possibly from scamp (“swindler, cheater”) or Irish cam (“crooked”). Also possibly from Danish skam; if so, it would be a doublet of shame and sham. First use appears c. 1963 in the periodical Time. The word became common use among the US drug culture when in early 1980, after Operation ABSCAM, an FBI sting operation directed at public officials, became public.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "unc",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"nocap": "1"
},
"expansion": "uncertain"
},
{
"name": "bor",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ga",
"3": "cam",
"4": "",
"5": "crooked"
},
"expansion": "Irish cam (“crooked”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "da",
"2": "skam"
},
"expansion": "Danish skam"
},
{
"name": "dbt",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "shame",
"3": "sham",
"nocap": "1",
"nocat": "1"
},
"expansion": "doublet of shame and sham"
}
],
"links": [
[
"scamp",
"scamp#English"
],
[
"cam",
"cam#Irish"
],
[
"skam",
"skam#Danish"
],
[
"shame",
"shame#English"
],
[
"sham",
"sham#English"
],
[
"FBI",
"FBI"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A fraudulent or dishonest deal. A swindle.",
"Something that is promoted using scams."
],
"tags": [],
"recordId": "8099a27d7445712e837c2ba0f61f418dcb117c28ab2de2ee639e97fd648fa789",
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"sourceRecordOrdinal": 277608
},
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To defraud or embezzle.",
"To seek out a partner for casual sex; to hit on."
],
"tags": [
"ambitransitive",
"slang"
],
"recordId": "cf3b0cb8036116ba43238058359d617d5f4e5f7b1e8d3f86feebcdeb39b4f2f3",
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"sourceRecordOrdinal": 277609
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
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"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 0,
"glosses": 0
}
}