Etymograph

English

gammon

Gammon comes from Old French gambon.

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gambon1
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*gammon1reconstructed
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1936gammon1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English gammon
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway: “[T]he cooks were laying a refection before him of…”.

Lineage

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gambonWiktionary, English gammon
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*gammonWiktionary, English gammonreconstructed
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1936gammonWiktionary, English gammon. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway: “[T]he cooks were laying a refection before him of…”

Every English word from Old French gambon

Another origin of gammon

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gamaną‘fun, amusement, game’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gamanōną‘to play, have fun, joke’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*gamanōn‘to play’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150gamnian‘to joke, play’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gamenen
  6. Englishtodaygammon

Today it means

noun A cut of quick-cured pork leg.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “gammon”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Old French gambon / gammon

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