gammon
pronunciation
How to pronounce gammon in British English:
UK [ˈgæmən]
How to pronounce gammon in American English:
US [ˈɡæmən]
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- Noun:
- meat cut from the thigh of a hog (usually smoked)
- hind portion of a side of bacon
Word Origin
- gammon
- gammon: Gammon ‘bacon’ [15] is not related to the gammon [18] of backgammon. It comes from Old Northern French gambon (source also of modern French jambon ‘ham’), which was a derivative of gambe ‘leg’ – hence etymologically ‘leg meat’. This seems to go back ultimately to Greek kampé ‘bend’, which was used particularly as an anatomical term for joints of the body.Latin took it over as a veterinary expression, gamba, denoting a ‘horse’s hoof’, and it passed in due course into Italian as gamba (whence English gambit, gambol, jamb [14], and the gamba of viola da gamba [18], played between the legs) and into French as jambe, both meaning ‘leg’. The gammon of backgammon comes from Middle English gamen, the ancestor of modern English game (see also BACKGAMMON).=> gambit, gambol, jamb
- gammon (n.)
- "ham or haunch of a swine," especially when smoked and cured, early 15c., gambon, from Old North French gambon "ham" (Old French jambon, 13c.), from gambe (Old French jambe) "leg," from Late Latin gamba "leg of an animal" (see gambol (n.)).
Example
- 1. Place the gammon in a large saucepan and cover with cold water .
- 2. Well , that sunday albert was home , they had a hot gammon .
- 3. And also , mrs. gammon called just before you came back .
- 4. All right , but what 's the matter , mr. gammon ?
- 5. Then I mentioned to someone that my favorite food is boiled bacon , meaning a gammon joint , and they refused to believe that we really do boil meat .