ham-bonen.
1. The bone in a ham of hog meat; also, such a bone with the meat attached. Also (in plural) transferred.
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the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > part or joint of animal > [noun] > bones
boneeOE
marrowbonec1387
ice-bone1576
natch-bone1614
pin bone1640
sucking-bone1648
tasting-bone1850
ham-bone1855
1855 W. G. Simms Forayers 340 He had..brought with him the ham-bone and bread which he had so hastily appropriated.
1866 ‘M. Twain’ in Harper's Mag. Dec. 111/1 We have only left a lower end of a ham-bone, with some of the outer rind and skin on.
1908 J. London Let. 22 Dec. (1966) 275 I have to get down on my ham-bones and beg forgiveness.
1972 P. Dickinson Lizard in Cup vi. 97 He found a bone in a trash-can—a bit of ham-bone.
2. U.S. slang. (depreciative). An inferior or amateur actor, esp. one who speaks in a spurious African American accent; a mediocre musician.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musician > [noun] > mediocre
musicaster1838
ham-bone1893
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > actor > [noun] > actor by manner of performance
tear-mouth1616
tear-throat1620
spouter1750
stick1801
gagger1871
facialist1877
fake1880
hamfatter1880
ham1882
mugger1892
ham-bone1893
upstager1933
rhubarber1953
1893 P. H. Emerson Signor Lippo v. 11 Hambones! I told you so. I could vardy that when I heard them joggering.
1905 W. Melville No Wedding Bells for Her ii. iii You are green, Ham bones means them as pays to act, which they can't do, and so saves the manager engaging deserving actors.
1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §583/18 Hambone, an unconvincing blackface dialectician.
1960 B. Keaton My Wonderful World of Slapstick i. 13 Because I was also a born hambone, I ignored any bumps or bruises I may have got at first on hearing audiences gasp.
3. A sextant. Naval slang.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > navigational aids > [noun] > quadrant, sextant, etc.
quadrant?c1400
quadrate1551
sextant1628
sinical quadrant1669
bow1696
pig yoke1836
hog yoke1897
ham-bone1938
the world > the universe > cosmology > science of observation > astronomical instruments > measuring altitude > [noun] > quadrant or sextant > sextant
sextant1628
ham-bone1938
1938 F. A. Worsley First Voy. in Square-rigged Ship viii. 144 What altitude have you got on that hambone, Stringer?
1962 W. Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 58/1 Ham~bone, sextant which is of much the same shape.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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