ham [OE] It is unlikely that ham actors get their name from salted meat. The word meaning ‘an excessively theatrical actor’ arose in the USA in the late 19th century and may be based on *amateur, although hamfatter was also used at this time to mean ‘an inexpert performer’—the ‘ham’ connection could be from the idea of being ‘ham-fisted’. The radio ham or amateur radio enthusiast appeared in the early 20th century. The word ham for the meat goes back to an ancient root meaning ‘to be crooked’. The earliest sense was ‘the back of the knee’, but in the 14th century people began to apply it to the back of the thigh, or the thigh and buttocks, and from there to the thigh and hock of an animal used as food [M17th]. Hamster [E17th] is unconnected. It is a German word—odd, as the hamster is found from central Europe through Asia to China, but not in Germany. Odder still is the fact that the German word’s origin means ‘corn weevil’, a kind of beetle.