re your last entry: the use of "lame" to mean "inadequate" is American. In other parts of the English-speaking world the literal meaning is much more common (though maybe more often applied to animals, like dogs or racehorses).

Over here, if I heard somebody using it to mean "failed" or whatever, I'd think they either were or or were impersonating a not very bright American college student.

I wonder if it has a similar background to "dumb"? (Which in American English is the result of a borrowing from German which has nothing to do with lack of speech).