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Ham (hăm)
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In the Bible, a son of Noah and the brother of Japheth and Shem.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
ham (hăm)
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n.
1. The thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especially a hog.
2. A cut of meat from the thigh of a hog, often cured by salting or smoking.
3. The back of the knee.
4. The back of the thigh.
5. hams The buttocks.
6. A performer who overacts or exaggerates.
7. A licensed amateur radio operator.
v. hammed, ham·ming, hams
v.intr.
To exaggerate or overdo a dramatic role; overact.
v.tr.
To exaggerate or overdo (a dramatic role, for example).
Idiom:
ham it up
To act or perform in an exaggerated, often intentionally broadly humorous or ridiculous style.

[Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm. Noun, sense 6, from obsolete slang hamfatter, a poor or amateurish actor, from the song "The Ham-Fat Man" (1863), considered typical of minstrel shows and their low standards of performance and depicting a stereotyped vision of slave life in the American South (including a slave who likes gravy made from ham fat). Noun, sense 7, short for ham operator, originally applied in the 1800s to telegraphers with poor skills, from HAM-FISTED and HAM-HANDED.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.