gastrocnemius n.

1650s, from Modern Latin gastricus, from Greek gaster (genitive gastros) "stomach, paunch, belly," often figurative of gluttony or greed, also "womb, uterus; sausage," by dissimilation from *graster, literally "eater, devourer," from gran "to gnaw, eat," from PIE root *gras- "to devour" (source also of Greek grastis "green fodder," Latin gramen "fodder, grass," Old English cærse "cress").

"thigh of a hog used for food" (especially salted and cured or smoke-dried), 1630s, extended from earlier sense of "part of the human leg behind the knee; hock of a quadruped," from Old English hamm "hollow or bend of the knee," from Proto-Germanic *hamma- (source also of Old Norse höm, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch hamme, Old High German hamma). This is from PIE *knam- "shin bone" (source also of Greek knēmē "calf of the leg, shank, tibia; spoke of a wheel," Old Irish cnaim "bone").

Ham-fisted (adj.) in reference to hard-hitting characters is from 1905; ham-handed "coarse, clumsy" is by 1896. With hammen ifalden "with folded hams" was a Middle English way of saying "kneeling."