gammon

See also: Gammon

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: gă'mən, IPA^(key): /ˈɡæmən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmən

Etymology 1

From Middle English *gammon, gambon, from Old French gambon (compare modern French jambon (“ham”)), from gambe (“leg”), from Late Latin gamba, from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ). Doublet of jambon and jamon.

Noun

gammon (countable and uncountable, plural gammons)

1. A cut of quick-cured pork leg.
   • 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 40:

     [T]he cooks were laying a refection before him of sack and anchovies and garlic sausage and gammons of bacon and - this was the important item - a great pudding dish out of which rose the noble dome of a crisp brown pie-crust.

Derived terms

• back gammon player
• gammon and spinach
• gammon iron

 

Translations

lower or hind part of a side of bacon

• Bulgarian: шунка f (šunka)
• Galician: xamón (gl) m, pernil m, freán m, presunto m
• Georgian: ბარკალი (barḳali)
• Irish: gambún m
• Polish: baleron (pl) m
• Russian: о́корок (ru) m (ókorok)

Verb

gammon (third-person singular simple present gammons, present participle gammoning, simple past and past participle gammoned)

1. To cure bacon by salting.

Etymology 2

From Middle English gamnen, gomnen, gamenen, gomenen, from Old English gamnian, gæmnian, gamenian (“to joke, play”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamanōn, from Proto-Germanic *gamanōną (“to play, have fun, joke”). Cognate with Middle High German gamenen (“to mock, make fun of”), Icelandic gamna (“to have fun”). More at game.

Alternative forms

• gamen, gammen, gammin, gamon

Verb

gammon (third-person singular simple present gammons, present participle gammoning, simple past and past participle gammoned)

1. (dialectal) To joke, kid around, play.
2. (backgammon) To beat by a gammon (without the opponent bearing off a stone).

Noun

gammon (countable and uncountable, plural gammons)

1. (dialectal) A joke, trick; play, sport, merriment.
2. (backgammon) A victory in backgammon achieved when the opponent has not borne off a single stone.
   • 2009 July 29, Virginia Henley, The Raven and the Rose, Island Books, →ISBN, page 210:

     Toward the end of the game Roger had not borne off a single stone belonging to Roseanna, and she scored a gammon. She could not hide the triumph in her eyes. “Perhaps you will play a better game if we play for something closer to your heart,” she suggested.

3. (rare) Backgammon (the game itself).
   • 2008 03, Zanzibar McFate, I Battled a Giant Otter: My Gut Bustin', Mutha Lovin' Life of Manly Adventure, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 131:

     We started about 7:00 drinking beers and playing gammon. Then after getting a little “loose” we went to a girls dorm.

Related terms

• backgammon

Translations

backgammon: type of victory

• Bulgarian: марс m (mars)
• Finnish: gammon (fi)
• Persian: مارس کردن (mârs kardan)

Etymology 3

Perhaps related to the first etymology, with reference to tying up a ham.

Noun

gammon (plural gammons)

1. (nautical) A rope fastening a bowsprit to the stem of a ship (usually called a gammoning).

Verb

gammon (third-person singular simple present gammons, present participle gammoning, simple past and past participle gammoned)

1. To lash with ropes (on a ship).

Translations

nautical: rope fastening bowsprit to stem

• Finnish: vesiharus
• Galician: cabestro (gl) m, adival (gl) m, solta f
• Spanish: barbiquejo m, barboquejo (es) m

Etymology 4

Perhaps a special use of the word from etymology 2.

Noun

gammon (uncountable)

1. (dated) Chatter, ridiculous nonsense.

   Synonym: gammon and pickles

   • 1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers 40:

     ‘Come, none o’ this gammon,’ growled Smouch, giving him another, and a harder one.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     “Gammon, Pen—go on,” Foker said.

   • 1911, Ambrose Bierce, “Mammon”, in The Devil’s Dictionary, New York, N.Y., Washington, D.C.: The Neale Publishing Company, →OCLC:

     He swore that all other religions were gammon, / And wore out his knees in the worship of Mammon.

Verb

gammon (third-person singular simple present gammons, present participle gammoning, simple past and past participle gammoned)

1. (colloquial, dated, transitive) To deceive; to lie plausibly to.
   • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

     And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.

   • 2016, Cathy McLennan, Saltwater, →ISBN:

     This blackfulla's driving a car. Copper stops 'im, says, “Did you know you were speeding?” Blackfulla says, “No.” His Missus goes, “Oh yeah you did, eh.” Cop says, “Did you know your tail lights aren't working? Guy says, "No". His missus says, "You did an' all, Dont you gammon to them coppers." Guy goes to his Missus, "Shut up!" Copper asks the Missus, "Does he always talk to you like that?" She goes, "Only when he's drunk!"

Adjective

gammon (comparative more gammon, superlative most gammon)

1. (Papua New Guinea, Australian Aboriginal, chiefly Queensland, Northern Territory) Fake, pretend; bullshit.

   Alternative form: gammin

   I was just being gammon.

   • 2018, Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip, University of Queensland Press, published 2023, page 112:

     She ripped the fake coins off […] and tried a black lacy veil, which covered Kerry's forehead, mouth and chin, rendering her mysterious. ‘I look like a Muslim,’ Kerry said doubtfully. […] It was better than the gammon coins though, so she left it.

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: giaman
• Tok Pisin: giamon

Etymology 5

Gained popularity in 2017 (in the phrase "Great Wall of Gammon", likening the referents' rosy complexions to gammon (“ham, bacon”)), although the metaphor was in use earlier: the BBC points to a 2016 use of "gammon face". Not related to the "gammon tendency" in Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, where the word means "nonsense".

Noun

gammon (countable and uncountable, plural gammons)

1. (neologism, derogatory, UK) A middle-aged or older right-wing, reactionary white man, or such men collectively.

See also

• Karen
• gammonati

Further reading

• George Pierpoint (2018 May 14) “Why your social media is covered in gammon”, in BBC News‎^[1], BBC