Etymology: < post-classical Latin Adam (Vulgate) < Hellenistic Greek Ἀδάμ (Septuagint) < Hebrew 'Āḏām (Genesis 4:25 and later: see below) < 'āḏām human being, humankind collectively, cognate with Phoenician 'dm (probably adam ), Arabic 'adam human being; further etymology uncertain: perhaps related to 'aḏamāh earth, ground (compare the juxtaposition of 'āḏām and 'aḏamāh in Genesis 2:7, where God forms man out of earth) or to 'aḏom red, ruddy (see Edomic adj.).In addition to the use as the name of the first man in the biblical account of the creation of the world, which is found in English from the Old English period onwards (see sense 1), Adam has long been used as a male personal name in western Christian societies. Such uses occur earliest as the names of monks, and use as the given name of a layman is not attested in England until after the Norman Conquest. By the 13th cent., however, Adam had become one of the commonest personal names in England, and has since remained part of the common stock of male forenames, varying in frequency with taste and fashion in different periods (compare similarly French Adam , etc.). In Genesis 1–3, Hebrew 'āḏām either occurs prefixed with the definite article ha- , in which case it cannot be a personal name, or with the preposition lĕ ‘to’. In the latter case, older translations of the Bible have taken a number of instances of the Hebrew word in Genesis 2–3 to show the use as personal name, e.g. the Septuagint (which first uses Ἀδάμ instead of ἄνθρωπος ‘human being’ (see anthropo- comb. form) in Genesis 2:16) and the Vulgate (which first uses Adam in Genesis 2:19, a practice reflected in early English versions such as the Wycliffite Bible, Coverdale, and the King James Bible (all first in Genesis 2:19)). However, recent scholarship has instead argued that the Hebrew text does not show secure uses of the personal name until Genesis 4:25, and this view is reflected in many recent translations such as the R.S.V., the N.R.S.V., and the Jerusalem Bible. With sense 3 (and old Adam n.) compare post-classical Latin vetus Adam (5th cent.), and also post-classical Latin vetus homo ‘the old man‘ (Vulgate: Ephesians 4:22; compare Hellenistic Greek παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος ). The ‘old Adam’, man in his fallen and unregenerate state, the ‘man of the flesh’, is frequently contrasted by Christian writers with the ‘new Adam’, Jesus Christ (compare e.g. Romans 5:12–21); compare new Adam n. at new adj. and n. Compounds 2a and old Adam n. 1.

Etymology: < the surname of Robert Adam (1728–92), Scottish architect, and his brother James Adam (1732–94), with whom he collaborated extensively in architectural practice in London.Other architects in the same family were their father William (c1689–1748) and their brother John (1721–92).

Etymology: Apparently an alteration of MDMA n. at M n. Initialisms 1, by association with the personal name Adam (see Adam n.¹).