ham

See also: Ham, HAM, hám, hâm, hầm, häm, Häm, håm, and hạm

English

A baked ham (cured thigh of hog)

Etymology 1

From Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm (“inner or hind part of the knee, ham”), from Proto-Germanic *hamō, *hammō, *hanmō, from Proto-Indo-European *kónh₂m (“leg”). Cognate with Dutch ham (“ham”), dialectal German Hamme (“hind part of the knee, ham”), dialectal Swedish ham (“the hind part of the knee”), Icelandic höm (“the ham or haunch of a horse”), Old Irish cnáim (“bone”), Ancient Greek κνήμη (knḗmē, “shinbone”). Compare gammon.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • enPR: hăm, IPA(key): /hæm/
  • Rhymes: -æm

Noun

ham (countable and uncountable, plural hams)

  1. (anatomy) The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock.
  2. (countable) A thigh and buttock of an animal slaughtered for meat.
  3. (uncountable) Meat from the thigh of a hog cured for food.
    a little piece of ham for the cat
    • (Can we date this quote?), Audra Lilly Griffeth, A King's Daughter →ISBN:
      She put some ham in the beans and cut up some sweet potatoes to boil.
  4. The back of the thigh.
  5. (Internet, informal, uncommon) Electronic mail that is wanted; mail that is not spam or junk mail.
    Antonym: spam
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Etymology 2

From Old English hām.

Noun

ham (uncountable)

  1. Obsolete form of home.

Usage notes

  • Persists in many old place names, such as Buckingham.

References

  • “ham” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.

Etymology 3

Of uncertain origin, though it is generally agreed upon that it first appeared in print around the 1880s. At least four theories persist:

  • It came naturally from the word amateur. Deemed likely by Hendrickson (1997), but then the question would be why it took so long to pop up. He rejects the folk etymology of Cockney slang hamateur because it originated in American English.[1]
  • From the play Hamlet, where the title character was often played poorly and/or in an exaggerated manner. Also deemed likely by Hendrickson, though he raises the issue that the term would have likely been around earlier if this were case.
  • From the minstrel's practice of using ham fat to remove heavy black makeup used during performances.[2]
  • Shortened from hamfatter (“inferior actor”), said to derive from the 1863 minstrel show song The Ham-fat Man.[3] William and Mary Morris (1988) argue that it's not known whether the song inspired the term or the term inspired the song, but that they believe the latter is the case.

Noun

ham (plural hams)

  1. (acting) An overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style.
  2. (radio) An amateur radio operator.
Synonyms
Translations

Verb

ham (third-person singular simple present hams, present participle hamming, simple past and past participle hammed)

  1. (acting) To overact; to act with exaggerated emotions.

Synonyms

References

  1. ↑ Hendrickson, Robert (1997) The Facts on File encyclopedia of word and phrase origins, New York: Facts on File, →ISBN
  2. ↑ Morris, William (1988) Morris dictionary of word and phrase origins, New York: Harper & Row, →ISBN
  3. ↑ "ham", Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

Caribbean Hindustani

Etymology

Compare Hindi हम (ham, “we”).

Pronoun

ham

  1. I

References

  • Beknopt Nederland-Sarnami Woordenboek met Sarnami Hindoestani-Nederlanse Woordenlijst‎ (in Dutch), Paramaribo: Instituut voor Taalwetenschap, 2002

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin hamus.

Pronunciation

Noun

ham m (plural hams)

  1. fishhook

Cebuano

Etymology

From English ham, from Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm (“inner or hind part of the knee, ham”), from Proto-Germanic *hamō, *hammō, *hanmō, from Proto-Indo-European *kónh₂m (“leg”).

Noun

ham

  1. ham; meat from the thigh of a hog cured for food

Danish

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hamr.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ham/, [hɑmˀ]

Noun

ham c (singular definite hammen, plural indefinite hamme)

  1. slough, skin
Declension
Derived terms

Etymology 2

See han.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ham/, [hɑm]

Pronoun

ham

  1. (personal) objective case of han
See also

Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hammō, from Proto-Indo-European *kónh₂m (“leg”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɦɑm/
  • audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɑm

Noun

ham f (plural hammen, diminutive hammetje n)

  1. ham

Derived terms

  • beenham
  • schouderham

Fiji Hindi

Etymology

From Hindi हम (ham, “we, I”).

Pronoun

ham

  1. I (1st person singular personal pronoun)
    Ham khelegaa!
    I will play!

Fyer

Etymology

Related to Gerka ram (“water”).

Noun

ham

  1. water

References

  • Roger Blench, Ron Comparative Wordlist
  • Takács, Gábor (1999-2008) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 201:
    […] we should carefully distinguish the following Ch. roots from AA *m-ˀ "water" [GT]:
    (1) Ch. *h-m "water" [GT]: WCh. *hama [Stl.]: AS *ham (Gmy. *hām) [GT 2004, 153] = *am [Stl. 1977] = *ham [Dlg.] = *ham [Stl. 1987]: […] Ron *ham [GT]: Fyer & Bks. & DB & Sha ham, Klr. ˀaàm […]
  • Václav Blažek, A Lexicostatitical comparison of Omotic languages, in In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory: Essays in the four fields of anthropology, page 122

Irish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [haːmˠ], [hamˠ]

Noun

ham m

  1. h-prothesized form of am

Middle English

Etymology 1

Pronoun

ham

  1. Alternative form of hem
References

Etymology 2

From Old English hām.

Noun

ham

  1. Alternative form of home

Middle French

Noun

ham m (plural hams)

  1. village

Montol

Etymology

Related to Mwaghavul am (“water”).

Noun

hàm

  1. water

References

  • Takács, Gábor (1999-2008) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 201:
    […] we should carefully distinguish the following Ch. roots from AA *m-ˀ "water" [GT]:
    (1) Ch. *h-m "water" [GT]: WCh. *hama [Stl.]: AS *ham (Gmy. *hām) [GT 2004, 153] = *am [Stl. 1977] = *ham [Dlg.] = *ham [Stl. 1987]: […] Tal hàm [Jng./JI], Mnt. hàm "Wasser" [Jng. 1965, 171], […]

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɑm/

Pronoun

ham

  1. him

Old English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɑm/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *hamō-. Cognate with Middle Dutch hamme (Dutch ham), Old High German hamma (dialectal German Hamm), Old Norse hǫm.

Noun

ham f

  1. (anatomy) ham, inner knee
    Monegum men gescrincaþ his fet to his homme: with many men the feet shrink up to the knee. (Leechbook)
Descendants

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *hammaz. Cognate with Old Frisian ham, Middle Low German hamme (Low German Hamm).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɑːm/

Noun

ham m

  1. enclosure, especially an enclosed pasture or dwelling

Etymology 3

From Proto-Germanic *haimaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kōim- (“village”), *ḱóymos, *(t)ḱoimos. Cognate with Old Frisian hām (West Frisian hiem), Old Saxon hēm, Frankish *haim (Dutch heem), Old High German heim (German Heim), Old Norse heimr (Swedish hem, Danish hjem), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍃 (haims). The Indo-European root is also the source of Greek κωμη (komi), Old Irish cóim, Lithuanian šeimà, Russian семья (semʹja).

Noun

hām m

  1. home, house
    Sēo Cwēn hæfþ hiere hām æt Windlesōran.
    Hǣlend cōm tō Lazares hām. : The Saviour came to the home of Lazarus.
  2. property, estate, farm
  3. village; community
Declension
Derived terms
Descendants

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Frankish *haim (“home, village”).

Noun

ham m (oblique plural hans, nominative singular hans, nominative plural ham)

  1. village

Descendants

Rohingya

Noun

ham

  1. work

Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ham/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Hungarian hám.

Noun

ham n (plural hamuri)

  1. harness
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

ham!

  1. woof, the sound a barking dog makes

See also

Ron

Etymology

Related to Gerka ram (“water”).

Noun

ham

  1. (most dialects, including Mangar, Bokkos, Daffo-Butura, Shagawu) water

Synonyms

  • àyîn (Monguna)

References

  • Roger Blench, Ron Comparative Wordlist
  • Takács, Gábor (1999-2008) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 201:
    […] we should carefully distinguish the following Ch. roots from AA *m-ˀ "water" [GT]:
    (1) Ch. *h-m "water" [GT]: WCh. *hama [Stl.]: AS *ham (Gmy. *hām) [GT 2004, 153] = *am [Stl. 1977] = *ham [Dlg.] = *ham [Stl. 1987]: […] Ron *ham [GT]: Fyer & Bks. & DB & Sha ham, Klr. ˀaàm […]

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

Etymology

A loan from Hungarian hám.

Noun

hȃm m (Cyrillic spelling ха̑м)

  1. harness

Sha

Etymology

Related to Gerka ram (“water”).

Noun

ham

  1. water

References

Tal

Etymology

Related to Mwaghavul am (“water”).

Noun

hàm

  1. water

References

  • Takács, Gábor (1999-2008) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 201:
    […] we should carefully distinguish the following Ch. roots from AA *m-ˀ "water" [GT]:
    (1) Ch. *h-m "water" [GT]: WCh. *hama [Stl.]: AS *ham (Gmy. *hām) [GT 2004, 153] = *am [Stl. 1977] = *ham [Dlg.] = *ham [Stl. 1987]: […] Tal hàm [Jng./JI], Mnt. hàm "Wasser" [Jng. 1965, 171], […]

Tambas

Etymology

Related to Gerka ram (“water”).

Noun

ham

  1. water

References

Turkish

Etymology

From Persian خام‎ (xâm).

Adjective

ham (comparative daha ham, superlative en ham)

  1. raw

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

Adjective

ham (𫺧, 𫻎)

  1. greedy
  2. eager
  3. keen

West Frisian

Noun

ham c (plural hammen)

  1. ham
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