Pronounced KAIR-um, most generally, a carom refers to a collision of one object off of another, followed by a rebound. The word has its origins from the French carambole or the Spanish carambola, which is the red billiard ball. Carom functions both as a noun and as a verb. A carom rail is the bumper off of which billiard balls (or any similar balls) bounce.

Though also used in hockey to mean ricochet, the most popular application of the word "carom" is in the game of billiards, as it is in this game where the rebounding of the playing pieces (the balls) is the focus of the game. Known in England as a cannon, as a technical term in the game of billiards, a carom is a shot in which the cue ball contacts two or more balls.

Carom (carum copticum)is also an herb native to India, researched extensively and noded under ajowan. It goes by the alternate names ajwain, bishop's weed, omum.

CAROM is also an acronym for "Content Addressable Read Only Memory", and is patented in the USA, as patent number 5576985. It is a computer component formed of folded foil sheets, with transistors, diodes, and fuses. Its function is to store data, much like a CD-ROM. However, this specific technology's strength is based on using previously "learned" data to compress input of new data. So, rather than taking up space linearly (in the manner of a CD-ROM), a greater amount of data already stored in the CAROM requires less additional memory to store further data.

Car"om (?), n. [Prob. corrupted fr. F. carumboler to carom, carambolage a carom, carambole the red ball in billiards.] Billiards

A shot in which the ball struck with the cue comes in contact with two or more balls on the table; a hitting of two or more balls with the player's ball. In England it is called cannon.

 

© Webster 1913.


Car"om, v. i. Billiards

To make a carom.

 

© Webster 1913.

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