iam

See also: IAM, i-am, -iam, I am, and Iam

Esperanto

Etymology

From i- (indeterminate correlative prefix) +‎ -am (correlative suffix of time).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈiam/

• Audio

  (file)

Adverb

iam

1. sometime, ever (indeterminate correlative of time)
2. once
   • 2000, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, La Eta Princo, translated by Pierre Delaire from the French

     Iam, kiam mi estis sesjara, mi vidis belegan bildon en iu libro pri la praarbaro, titolita "Travivitaj rakontoj".

     Once, when I was six years old, I saw a magnificent picture in a book about the primeval forest, titled "True Stories".

Derived terms

• iam ajn (“anytime”)
• iama

---

Latin

Alternative forms

• jam

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *Hyā́m, acc.sg.f. of *Hyós (“who, which”). Cognate with Ancient Greek ὅς (hós), Sanskrit यद् (yás, yā, yad), Avestan 𐬫𐬋‎ (yō), Phrygian ιος (ios), Gothic 𐌾𐌰 (ja), 𐌾𐌰𐌹 (jai, “yes”), Old High German ja, jā (“yes”) (German ja), Old English ġēa (“yea, yes”) (English yea).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /jam/, [jãˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /jam/

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Adverb

iam (not comparable)

1. already

   Birota iam refecta est. ― The bicycle has already been repaired.

2. now
   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Curculio 5.3.5:

     CAPPADOX: Iam iam faciam ut iusseris.

     CAPPADOX: Now, now, I’ll do as you say!

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.871:

     Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas.

     And now, I have completed a great work, which not Jove's anger, and not fire nor steel, nor fast-consuming time can sweep away.

3. anymore
4. soon

Usage notes

Iam means, generally, “at some point previous” or “since some point previous”. In English, already, the most common translation, is used only to emphasize that this point might have been expected to be later, whereas now is used to emphasize that the statement was once false, even when the statement refers to a point in the past or future. Iam is used to express either. (Likewise, the most common Latin word for now, nunc, denotes only the literal present moment.) Also, where iam means now, it is often used in negative sentences, in which the most common English construction uses anymore.

Derived terms

• etiam
• iamdudum
• iam pridem
• non iam
• quia
• quoniam

 

Descendants

• Asturian: yá
• Catalan: ja
• Esperanto: jam
• French: jà
• Friulian: za, ğa
• Galician: xa
• → Basque: ia
• Ido: ja
• Italian: già
• Portuguese: já
• Sardinian: gia
• Sicilian: già
• Spanish: ya
• Venetian: xà, zà

References

• iam in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• iam in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • he has been absent five years: quinque annos or sextum (iam) annum abest
    
  • to be middle-aged (i.e. between thirty and forty): tertiam iam aetatem videre
    
  • those ideas have long ago been given up: illae sententiae iam pridem explosae et eiectae sunt (Fin. 5. 8. 23)
    
  • as if the victory were already won: sicut parta iam atque explorata victoria
    
• iam in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN

---

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• ião, iaõ, hião, hiaõ, hiam (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Portugal, Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ɐ̃w̃/

Verb

iam

1. third-person plural (eles and elas, also used with vocês and others) imperfect indicative of ir

---

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From imati, through elision of /m/.

Verb

iam ? (Cyrillic spelling иам)

1. (colloquial) Alternative form of imam (first-person singular present of imati)