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lemming

noun
/lɛm.ɪŋ/UK

Etymology

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.

  1. derived from lómundr
  2. derived from lemming

Definitions

  1. A small arctic and subarctic rodent of the tribes Lemmini, Dicrostonychini and Lagurini.

  2. Any member of a group given to conformity or groupthink, especially a group poised to…

    Any member of a group given to conformity or groupthink, especially a group poised to follow a leader off a cliff.

    • Lemmings are strongly cohesive, but could be, in organisational terms, highly destructive for the business.
    • Like a lemming, I followed the crowd, got to the right line and was concentrating hard when queried by the customs officer.
    • “It’s like the one person did it once and since then everyone has followed like lemmings, they all just copy each other’s behaviour,” said [Paul] Loebenberg.

The neighborhood

Derived

bog lemming, collared lemming, Eurolemming, lemmingism, lemminglike, northern bog lemming, Norway lemming, steppe lemming, true lemming, wood lemming, yellow steppe lemming

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for lemming. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA