| 释义 |
▪ I. ham, n.1 (a.)|hæm|
Forms: 1 ham(m, hom(m, 3–4 homme, 3–7 hamme, 5 hame, 5– ham.
[OE. ham(m, hom(m, str. f. = OHG. hamma, MHG. hamme, Ger. dial. hamm, angle of the knee, Du. hamme (Kilian) ham ‘ham’; cf. also, with single m, OHG. hama, MHG. hame, Flem. hame, ON. hǫm: app. f. an OTeut. *ham-, *hamm- to be crooked.]
A. n.
I.
1. a. That part of the leg at the back of the knee; the hollow or bend of the knee.
c1000ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 160/13 Poples, hamm. c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 68 Moneᵹum men ᵹescrincað his fet to his homme. Ibid. ᵹebeþe þa hamma mid þam stan baðe. a1225Ancr. R. 122 Mid hommen iuolden, þet is, cneolinde. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 360/42 Þe senewes in his hamme schronken. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 1541 His cnes cachchez to close and cluchches his hommes. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 295 Loke in his hamme, vnder his knee. 1530Palsgr. 228/2 Hamme of the legge, jarret. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 921 We must not suppose that he doth sit with bended hammes. 1679Confinement 31 With supple ham, and pliant knee. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. iii. v. 210 He hangs by his hams upon a pole. 1831Brewster Nat. Magic x. (1833) 254 He broke it to pieces by the tendons of his hams.
b. By extension: The back of the thigh; the thigh and buttock collectively. Usually in pl.
1552Huloet, Hamme, femur. 1573–80Baret Alv. H 57 The vtter part of the thigh, the hamme, fœmur. 1676Hobbes Iliad (1677) 190 He cannot, without trembling, quiet sit; But dances on his hams, and changes hue. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 562 They sit on their hams, with their legs and arms disposed in the manner of monkeys. 1875F. Hall in Lippincott's Mag. XVI. 753/1 Squatting on their hams at respectful distance.
c. In quadrupeds: The back of the hough; the hough.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 317 A kinde of Scab breeding in the ham, which is the bent of the bough. 1678Trans. Crt. Spain ii. 156 To cut the hammes of the Mules of the Coach. 1735Somerville Chase i. 250 His [a hound's] round Cat Foot, Strait Hams, and wide-spread Thighs..confess his Speed.
2. The thigh of a slaughtered animal, used for food; spec. that of a hog salted and dried in smoke or otherwise; also, the meat so prepared.
1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow) 324 Mr. Henrie Blyth had such antipathie aganis an ham, that no sooner did he heare a ham spoken of but he swarfed. 1711Steele Spect. No. 14 ⁋8 A Jew eat me up half a Ham of Bacon. 1712Prior Extempore Invitation 4 If they can dine On bacon-ham, and mutton-chine. 1734W. Snelgrave Guinea & Slave Trade 210 Several Westphalia Hams, and a large Sow. 1775Romans Hist. Florida 331, I purchased some bear, bacon and venison hams of them. 1833Marryat P. Simple xxv, A smoked mutton ham. 1854Thackeray Rose & Ring xiv, She took out..some slices of ham.
3. attrib. and Comb., as ham-curing, ham-pie, ham-sandwich, ham-smoker; ham-beetle, one of several American beetles whose larvæ are destructive to hams, esp. Corynetes (Necrobia) rufipes, the red-legged ham-beetle; hamfatter U.S. slang, an ineffective actor or performer; (also hamfat) a mediocre jazz musician; so hamfat man, etc.; ham-fisted a., having large or clumsy hands, heavy-handed, awkward; bungling; hence ham-fistedly adv., ham-fistedness; ham-footed a., clumsy, awkward, stupid; ham-handed a., = ham-fisted; hence ham-handedly adv., ham-handedness; ham loaf orig. U.S., a shaped mass of chopped cooked ham intended to be cut into slices; ham-tail, ? a (horse's) tail of a rounded shape like a ham.
1848Dickens Dombey vi, The old-established Ham-and-Beef Shop.
1907Daily Chron. 23 Oct. 4/4 Spinning, or bread⁓baking, or *ham-curing.
1880G. A. Sala America Revisited (1882) I. iv. 66 Every American who does not wish to be thought ‘small potatoes’ or a *‘ham-fatter’ or a ‘corner loafer’. 1889Cent. Dict., Hamfatter,..a term of contempt for an actor of a low grade, as a negro minstrel. Said to be derived from an old-style negro song called ‘The Ham-fat Man’. 1932‘Spindrift’ Yankee Slang 20 Hamfatter, loudly-dressed and loudly-decorated dude. 1938N.Y. Amsterdam News 12 Mar. 17 The Harlem Hamfats grind out the tune. 1946Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues 58 A lot of beat up old hamfats..sang and played. 1959S. B. Charters Country Blues 86 The singing of these little ‘hamfat’ bands never reached the artistic intensity of men like Blind Lemon. 1966New Yorker 11 June 160/2 Most of the musicians playing in these clubs are old men... They're hamfat musicians. In the old days, the rough musicians kept pieces of ham fat in their pockets to grease the slides of their trombones.
1928Daily Mail 7 May 6/4 *Ham Fisted.—Applied to pilots who are heavy on controls, or generally clumsy. 1928Sunday Express 24 June 8/3 Two thousand lumber-jacks were in town, ham-fisted great fellows with hair on their chests and pine needles growing out of their ears. 1938C. S. Forester Ship of Line 51 God damn and blast all you hamfisted yokels. 1942H. Allen in Forbes & Allen Ten Fighter Boys 15 A dog-fight with a Hun very rarely entails a considered aerobatic movement as an evasive action. In fact, the more ham-fisted the movement, the better its effect. 1960Times 20 Oct. 8/1 The play's basic idea implies a less ham-fisted humour than the authors can supply. 1964Punch 2 Sept. 355/1 Some *ham-fistedly insensitive moments.
1963Times 16 Feb. 9/3 The campaign cannot be written off because of the *hamfistedness of its beginnings.
1960E. S. & W. J. Higham High Speed Rugby 26 One *‘ham-footed’ forward..makes a present of the ball to the other side. 1961Sunday Express 7 May 14 Is he so thick-soled, ham⁓footed?
1918W. A. Bishop Winged Warfare 30 First the instructor would tell me I was *‘ham-handed’—that I gripped the controls too tightly with every muscle tense. 1918Punch 3 Apr. 222/2 Second P[ilot]... I was getting ham-handed and mutton-fisted, flapping the old things every day. 1930C. Dixon Parachuting 93 The pilot with sensitive hands is a better pilot than one with non⁓sensitive hands. The latter are bluntly called ‘ham⁓handed’. 1934E. Linklater Magnus Merriman 98 Are you trying to insult me, or is that your ham-handed idea of a compliment? 1946Times 3 Dec. 8/3 There should be no ham-handed bulk purchasing of stuff which was not really wanted. 1958New Statesman 12 Apr. 458/3 Much of the recipient's pleasure is taken away by the very ham-handed invitation. 1964Economist 11 Apr. 168/1 The FMC has gone a bit *hamhandedly about its job.
1928O. Stewart Aerobatics 50 One of the main objectives in finesse is the development of good ‘hands’... *Ham-handedness is not often a gift of unkind fate; it is not necessarily incurable. 1963Economist 8 June 1046/1 The Kennedy Administration has contributed its own moments of hamhandedness.
1902Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 558/2 Hamburger steak with onions, veal loaf, *ham loaf. 1907Daily Chron. 23 Sept. 7/5 Veal loaf, ham loaf, beef loaf.
1733Pope Hor. Sat. ii. i. 46 None deny..Darty his *Ham-pie.
c1847J. S. Coyne in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1973) IV. 186 We used to go together to Greenwich, with a paper of *ham sandwiches in my basket. 1866‘Mark Twain’ Lett. fr. Hawaii (1967) 68 The Sandwich Islanders always squat on their hams, and who knows but they may be the old original ‘ham sandwiches’? 1872‘L. Carroll’ Through Looking-Glass vii, I fed him with—with—with Ham-sandwiches and Hay. 1880Ruskin Fathers have told Us i. i, If he has bought his ham-sandwich, and is ready for the ‘En voiture, messieurs’. 1972B. Everitt Cold Front xv. 145 The boy..sat between us, polishing off a gigantic ham sandwich.
1829T. Hook Bank to Barnes 164 *Ham-smoker, and pork-butcher.
1705Lond. Gaz. No. 4183/4 A..Gelding..with a *Ham Tail.
1611Cotgr., Veine iartiere, the garter veine, or *hamme veine.
4. Phr. ham and beef Rhyming slang, the chief warder in a prison; ham and eggs, a dish consisting of fried ham and eggs.
1941J. Phelan Murder by Numbers iv. 46 There's the ham-and-beef and tickety-boo making rounds. 1962John o' London's 25 Jan. 82/2 A chief warder or prison officer is known in rhyming slang as a ham and beef.
1837W. H. Wills Jrnl. in S. Hist. Assoc. Pub. VI. 473 They gave me fryed ham and eggs and biscuit, bread & Coffee. 1838Dickens Let. 1 Feb. (1965) I. 366 We have had for breakfast,..ham and eggs. 1967C. Drummond Death at Furlong Post iii. 31 ‘Get me ham and eggs,’ he said.
II.
5. a. [App. short for hamfatter.] An inexpert performer; (also ham actor, ham actress) an ineffective or over-emphatic actor, one who rants or overacts. slang (orig. U.S.).
1882Illustr. Sport. & Dram. News 23 Dec. 355/2 ‘Banjo Hams’ are held up to scorn. Ibid., One writer proudly describes himself as ‘no ham, but a classical banjo player’. 1903S. Clapin New Dict. Amer. 220 Ham, in theatrical parlance, a tenth-rate actor or variety performer. 1911Hampton's Mag. Aug. 178/1 It was the voice of what is known as a ‘ham’, because Shakespeare once wrote a play. A ‘ham’ actor. 1926H. C. Witwer Roughly Speaking 223 Ham actors get a extra split week at a picture house if their fearful monologs put the ladies on the broiler. 1928Daily Express 20 June 9/4 Sophie Tucker will, in all probability, appear in a revue next autumn... ‘You have never seen me in revue,’ Sophie reminded me, ‘I am a ham actor too, you know.’ 1933‘Hay’ & ‘Armstrong’ Orders are Orders ii. 51 ‘We'd better have Harvey..to double for him.’..‘That old ham actor?’ 1936Wodehouse Laughing Gas xviii. 200 Just one of these ham actors that's jealous of a fellow's screen genius. 1941E. Wilson Wound & Bow i. 61 Dickens had a strain of the ham in him, and, in the desperation of his later life, he gave in to the old ham and let him rip. 1947N. Marsh Final Curtain xii. 179 A squalid little ham actress. 1957V. J. Kehoe Technique Film & T.V. Make-Up i. 15 The expression ‘ham’ actor originated from those performers who rubbed ham rind on their faces as a base for their colored powders when they could not afford the more expensive and less odoriferous oils. 1958Times 16 Apr. 3/2 ‘He thought I was an old ham,’ says Miss Seyler indulgently.
b. An inexpert or over-theatrical performance; ham acting. slang.
1942R. Chandler High Window (1943) xxx. 195 Don't feed me the ham. I've been in pictures. I'm a connoisseur of ham. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Feb. 95/3 Charles Dickens..saw Lemaître in his late period and was swept off his feet, but what he says might apply equally well to ham acting. In fact, it sounds suspiciously like ham. 1959Listener 28 May 954/2 The mummer who thinks that all acting before his time was ‘ham’.
6. An amateur telegraphist; now esp. an amateur radio operator. slang (orig. U.S.).
1919C. H. Darling Jargon Bk. 17 Ham, a student telegraph operator. 1922Glasgow Herald 18 Aug. 6 Any person who passes a test prescribed by the Government can obtain a licence to ‘send’ radio messages in the United States, and in popular parlance one who has qualified and taken this ‘Radio Operator Amateur—First Grade’ certificate is dubbed a ‘ham’. 1928Collier's 22 Sept. 26 The amateur radio ‘hams’ have the ends of the earth for neighbors. 1929Amer. Speech IV. 288 At either end of a wire an unskillful operator is a ‘lid’, ‘ham’, ‘bum’ or ‘plug’. 1936Daily Herald 19 Sept. 7/5 (Advt.), Do you ever hear the ‘hams’? It appears that ‘hams’ is American for amateur radio transmitters... Of course, the ‘hams’ use the short wavelengths. 1955Sci. News Let. 19 Mar. 188/2 Now it will be easier for a blind person to qualify for a license as a radio ‘ham’. 1957Oxford Mail 9 Nov. 4/5 The Russians invited radio ‘hams’ throughout the world to send details to Radio Magazine, Moscow, of reception from their satellites. 1967New Scientist 11 May 322/3 The army of radio ‘hams’, who reach out over fantastic distances with their single sideband transmitters and receivers, are about to be reinforced. 1973D. Lees Rape of Quiet Town vi. 90 He'd heard the radio ham speaking into a microphone.
III. 7. [Partly from ham-fisted, -handed adjs.] An incompetent boxer or fighter. U.S. slang.
1888Missouri Repub. 27 Mar. (Farmer), He is a good fighter but will allow the veriest ham to whip him. 1929Sat. Even. Post 14 Dec. 144/3 They want me to slug with this big ham.
B. attrib. or as adj.
1. Characteristic of or relating to a ham actor or an inexpert performer; self-consciously theatrical. slang.
1935H. Williams 4 Yrs. Old Vic xi. 186 Young players to-day are scared of being what they call ‘ham’, which I suppose is an abbreviation of what used to be termed ‘ham-bone’. 1938Evening Standard 26 July 7/2 We hear a great deal about ‘ham’ acting nowadays. As far as I can judge, ‘ham’ acting is the habit of rolling sonorous speeches round the tongue and delivering them with extravagant relish to the gallery. 1944Auden Sea & Mirror in For Time Being iii. 56 The schmalz tenor never quite able at his big moments to get right up nor the ham bass right down. 1958B. Nichols Sweet & Twenties xvii. 231 His conception of aristocracy was strangely out of date, and more than a little ‘ham’. 1958Observer 4 May 15/7 It is one of the most extraordinary exhibitions of ham acting I've ever seen.
2. [Partly from ham-fisted, -handed adjs.] Clumsy, ineffective, incompetent. slang.
1941M. Allingham Traitor's Purse xii. 133 Campion's thin hands remained expressionless and Lugg's great ham-fists did not stir. 1942Forbes & Allen Ten Fighter Boys p. xv, What he obviously intended to do on overshooting me was to flick over and spin down, but being a little ham, he overdid the manœuvre and came the right way up. Ibid. 84, I didn't stay to argue, but went bowling down in the hammest manner possible. 1949‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar xiv. 124 He was..reluctant to submit that tender mouth to the ham hands of a Westerner. 1963Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Feb. 71/1 Nothing he hated more than ‘ham’ writing and ‘prefabricated’ characters.
▸ ham-and-egger n. U.S. slang (freq. depreciative) a person or thing regarded as average, mediocre, or (occas.) stupid or inferior; spec. (esp. in early use) an average or incompetent boxer (cf. sense A. 5).
1911Chicago Daily Tribune 27 Apr. 21/2 [Jack] Johnson started home on the Overland, but was switched at Omaha to a train he designated as a ‘*ham and egger’. 1930Amer. Mercury Jan. 104/2 G'wan beat it before I get up an' knock you two ham-an'-eggers down the stairs! 1968Films in Rev. Dec. 647/2 The then heavyweight champion plays around in a staged ‘fight’ with a ham-n-egger from New Jersey. 1999J. Grisham Testament 324 Because they were big-firm lawyers they quite naturally looked down upon the type of unethical behavior being..condoned by Grits and Bright and the other ham-and-eggers.
▪ II. ham, n.2 local.
[OE. ham(m, hom(m, str. m. = OFris. ham, hem, him, NFris. hamm, EFris. ham, hamm a pasture or meadow enclosed with a ditch, LGer. hamm piece of enclosed land (on the Rhine, ‘meadow’); WFlem. ham meadow, in Kilian hamme, ham ‘pratum pascuum’; a word confined on the continent to the Frisian and Lower Saxon area, where its specific application varies as in England.]
A plot of pasture ground; in some places esp. meadow-land; in others spec. an enclosed plot, a close. Found in OE., and still in local use in the south; in some places surviving only as the name of a particular piece of ground.
901–9Charter of Eadweard in Cod. Dipl. V. 166 Ðanon on ᵹerihte to Scealdæmeres hamme. c1000Ibid. V. 383 Ða hammas ða ðer mid rihte toᵹebyriaþ. 1617Minsheu Ductor, A Hamme or a little plot of ground growing by the riuers or Thames side, commonly crooked, and beset with many willow trees or osiers. c1630Risdon Surv. Devon (1810) 6 Between the North and the South Hams (for that is the ancient name) there lieth a chain of hills. 1702Lond. Gaz. No. 3838/4 The said Fair will be kept..upon a Place..called the Ham. 1796W. Marshall West Engl. I. 33 The forests [would] be converted, by degrees, into common pastures, or hams. 1880Williams Rights of Common 91 Within these two meadows were several hams or home closes of meadow. 1881Blackmore Christowell iv, The sheep⁓wash corner in the lower ham.
▪ III. ham, n.3
The OE. hám home, which, in composition, has been shortened to ham, as in Hampstead, Hampton (:—Hámtún), Oakham, Lewisham, etc., and, in this form, is sometimes used by historical writers in the sense ‘town, village, or manor’ of the Old English period.
1864I. Taylor Words & Places (1882) 82 In the Anglo-Saxon charters we frequently find this suffix (ham) united with the names of families, never with those of individuals. 1872E. W. Robertson Hist. Ess. 118 A separate homestead apart from the ham of the vill. 1874Green Short Hist. 3 The home or ‘ham’ of the Billings would be Billingham.
▪ IV. † ham, v.1 Obs. rare.
[f. ham n.1]
= hamstring v.
1618Crt. & Times Jas. I (1849) II. 114 The bailiffs assaulted him in his coach, hammed his horses, and threatened no less unto himself.
▪ V. ham, v.2 slang.|hæm|
[f. ham n.1]
To act in a ‘hammy’ manner, to over-act. Freq. const. up. Hence ˈhammed-up ppl. a.; ˈhamming vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1933Stanley & Maxfield Voice 268 Hamming. 1937Printers' Ink Monthly Apr. 54 Ham it, overacts [sic] for emphasis—bluster. 1944L. A. G. Strong Director xxii. 166 What with toning my voice down to that kid's mewing, and then trying to balance that hamming bloody idiot. 1946Daily Tel. 18 Nov. 6/6 Thomas Mitchell, after a deal of recent hamming, is a convincing detective. 1955A. Huxley Genius & Goddess 16 The performance was on the corny side; but it was a sympathetic part and, though she dearly loved to ham it up, Beulah was not merely a treasure. 1955T. Sterling Evil of Day ix. 110 ‘Any actor would give twenty years of his life to play the part.’..‘I thought if I told you what it was you'd ham it.’ 1957Listener 12 Sept. 402/3 Nor does he purvey anything of Wales as it is—rather the hammed-up version of Wales that the stupider sort of Englishman prefers. 1957Observer 10 Nov. 19/2 The temptation of second-feature hamming. 1958M. Dickens Man Overboard ii. 27 She had hammed her scene with the seducer at the final run through. 1960S. H. Courtier Gently dust Corpse iii. 38 Hamming it now, thought Birch, and it's time they were brought to their senses. 1965Listener 18 Nov. 795/1 Marie Bell..hams it up in a smugly self-conscious cameo portrayal. 1973E. Page Fortnight by Sea xii. 132 A hammed-up impression of a military man.
▪ VI. ham
obs. var. am (see be v.); obs. f. home. |