LOOM

loom, or loon (icelandic, _lomr_), a name applied to water-birds of three distinct families, remarkable for their clumsy gait on land.[1] the first is the _colymbidae_, to which the term diver (q.v.) is usually restricted in books; the second the _podicipedidae_, or grebes (q.v.); and the third the _alcidae_. the form loon is most commonly used both in the british islands and in north america for all species of the genus _colymbus_, or _eudytes_ according to some ornithologists, frequently with the prefix sprat, indicating the fish on which they are supposed to prey; though it is the local name of the great crested grebe (_podiceps cristatus_) wherever that bird is sufficiently well known to have one; and, as appears from grew (_mus. reg. soc._ p. 69), it was formerly given to the little grebe or dabchick (_p. fluviatilis_ or _minor_). the other form loo_m_ seems more confined in its application to the north, and is said by t. edmonston (_etym. gloss. shetl. and orkn. dialect_, p. 67) to be the proper name in shetland of _colymbus septentrionalis_;[2] but it has come into use among arctic seamen as the name of the guillemot (_alca arra_ or _bruennichi_) which throngs the cliffs of northern lands, from whose "loomeries" they obtain a wholesome food; while the writer believes he has heard the word locally applied to the razorbill (q.v.). (a. n.) footnotes: [1] the word also takes the form "lumme" (_fide_ montagu), and, as professor skeat observes, is probably connected with _lame_. the signification of _loon_, a clumsy fellow, and metaphorically a simpleton, is obvious to any one who has seen the attempt of the birds to which the name is given to walk. [2] dunn and saxby, however, agree in giving "rain-goose" as the name of the species in scotland.