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”). 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.

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• enPR: hăm, IPA^(key): /hæm/
• Rhymes: -æm

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

   • 2012, 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

From Old English hām.

ham (uncountable)

1. Obsolete form of home.

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

• “ham” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

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.

ham (plural hams)

1. (acting) an overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style

   Synonyms: hambone, hamfatter, overactor, tear-cat

2. (radio) an amateur radio operator

   Synonym: radio amateur

• ham radio

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.

• chew the scenery, ham it up, melodramatize, overact, tear a cat

• HMA, MHA, Mah, mAh, mah

Compare Hindi हम (ham, “we”).

ham

1. I

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

From Latin hamus.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈam/

ham m (plural hams)

1. fishhook

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”).

ham

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

From Old Norse hamr.

• IPA^(key): /ham/, [hɑmˀ]

ham c (singular definite hammen, plural indefinite hamme)

1. slough, skin

• dyreham
• fjederham
• fugleham
• hamskifte, hamskifter
• slangeham
• snogeham
• svaneham

See han.

• IPA^(key): /ham/, [hɑm]

ham

1. (personal) objective case of han

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

• IPA^(key): /ɦɑm/

• audio

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• Rhymes: -ɑm

ham f (plural hammen, diminutive hammetje n)

1. ham

• beenham
• boterham
• schouderham

From Hindi हम (ham, “we, I”).

ham

1. I (1st person singular personal pronoun)

   Ham khelegaa!

   I will play!

Related to Gerka ram (“water”).

ham

1. water

• Roger Blench, Ron Comparative Wordlist
• Takács, Gábor (2007) 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

• IPA^(key): [haːmˠ], [hamˠ]

ham m

1. h-prothesized form of am

From Old English heom.

ham

1. Alternative form of hem

From Old English hām.

ham

1. Alternative form of home

From Old English ham (“back of the knee”).

ham

1. Alternative form of hamme (“back of the knee”)

From Old English ham (“enclosure”).

ham

1. Alternative form of hamme (“pasture”)

ham m (plural hams)

1. village

Related to Mwaghavul am (“water”).

hàm

1. water

• Takács, Gábor (2007) 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], […]

ham

1. him third-person singular, masculine, objective
2. it third-person singular, neuter, objective

• höm (Sylt)

• IPA^(key): /hɑm/

ham

1. him

From Old Norse hamr.

ham m (definite singular hammen, indefinite plural hammer, definite plural hammene)

1. skin or slough (discarded skin of certain animals)

• hamlet
• hamskifte

• “ham” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “ham_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “ham_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Old Norse hamr

ham m (definite singular hamen, indefinite plural hamar, definite plural hamane)

1. skin or slough (discarded skin of certain animals)

• hamlet
• hamskifte

• “ham” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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).

• IPA^(key): /hɑːm/

hām m

1. home, house

   Sēo Cwēn hæfþ hiere hām æt Windlesōran.

   Hǣlend cōm tō Lazares hām. : Jesus came to Lazarus' home.

2. property, estate, farm
3. village; community

• In early Old English, the dative singular was always hām, not the expected form hāme.

• hāmlēas

• Middle English: home, hoom, hom, ham
  • English: home
  • Northumbrian: hyem
  • Scots: hame

hām

1. home, homeward

   hām gān

   to go home

   hām cuman

   to come home

   hām ċierran

   to turn home

   hām bringan

   to bring home

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

ham m

1. Alternative form of hamm (“enclosure”)

From Proto-Germanic *hammō.

ham f

1. Alternative form of hamm (“inner knee”)

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

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

1. village

• Walloon: hamea, amia, hamia
• Walloon: hamtea, hametê, hamtia, amtia
• ⇒ Old French: hamel
  • Middle French: hamel
    • French: hameau
  • Walloon: hamô
  • → Middle English: hamel
  • ⇒ Old French: hamelet, hamlet
    • Middle French: hamelet
    • → Middle English: hamelet, hamlet
      • English: hamlet

ham

1. work

• IPA^(key): /ham/

Borrowed from Hungarian hám.

ham n (plural hamuri)

1. harness

• înhăma

Onomatopoeic.

ham!

1. woof, the sound a barking dog makes

• hau

Related to Gerka ram (“water”).

ham

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

• àyîn (Monguna)

• Roger Blench, Ron Comparative Wordlist
• Takács, Gábor (2007) 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 […]

• ȃm

A loan from Hungarian hám.

hȃm m (Cyrillic spelling ха̑м)

1. harness

Related to Gerka ram (“water”).

ham

1. water

• Roger Blench, Ron Comparative Wordlist

Related to Mwaghavul am (“water”).

hàm

1. water

• Takács, Gábor (2007) 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], […]

Related to Gerka ram (“water”).

ham

1. water

• Roger Blench, Ron Comparative Wordlist

From Persian خام‎ (xâm).

ham (comparative daha ham, superlative en ham)

1. raw

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [haːm˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [haːm˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [haːm˧˧]

ham (𫺧, 𫻎)

1. greedy
2. eager; keen

ham c (plural hammen, diminutive hamke)

1. ham

• “ham (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011