English

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Etymology 1

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From French cham, from Turkish han (lord, prince) (borrowed into Arabic, Persian, Mongolian etc.).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cham (plural chams)

  1. Archaic spelling of khan.
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. [...] The First Part [], 2nd edition, part 1, London: [...] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, [], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
      And ſince we haue arriu’d in Scythia,
      Beſides rich preſents from the puiſant Cham,
      UUe haue his highneſſe letters to commaund
      Aide and aſſiſtance if we ſtand in need.
    • 1840, Thomas Fuller, The History of the Holy War:
      But Baiothnoi, chief captain of the Tartarian army (for they were not admitted to speak with the great cham himself), cried quits with this friar, outvying him with the greatness and divinity of their cham; and sent back by them a blunt letter [...]
  2. An autocrat or dominant critic, especially Samuel Johnson.
    • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon:
      Sitting at a table, drinking Ale, observing the Mist thro’ the Window-Panes, Mason forty-five, the Cham sixty-four.
    • 2007, Michael Dobson, “For his Nose was as sharpe as a Pen”, in London Review of Books, volume 29, number 9, page 3:
      The Tonsons [...] would publish Johnson's Shakespeare only by subscription, obliging the Great Cham to sell copies well ahead of publication

Etymology 2

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See chap.

Verb

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cham (third-person singular simple present chams, present participle chamming, simple past and past participle chammed)

  1. (obsolete) To chew.
    • 1531, William Tyndale, Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue:
      But he that repenteth toward the law of God, and at the sight of the sacrament, or of the breaking, feeling, eating, chamming, or drinking, calleth to remembrance the death of Christ, his body breaking and blood shedding for our sins [...]

Etymology 3

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From ch- +‎ am, from ich + am.

Contraction

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cham

  1. (West Country, obsolete) I am
Synonyms
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References

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  • Holloway, William (1840) A General Dictionary of Provincialisms, London: John Russell Smith, page 27

Anagrams

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Antillean Creole

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Etymology

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From French charme.

Noun

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cham

  1. potion

French

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from Vietnamese Chăm, from Eastern Cham Cam.

Adjective

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cham (feminine chame, masculine plural chams, feminine plural chames)

  1. Cham

Noun

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cham m (plural chams)

  1. Cham (language)

Etymology 2

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Borrowed from Turkish han (khan).

Noun

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cham m (plural chams)

  1. Obsolete form of khan (khan).

Further reading

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Irish

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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cham

  1. Lenited form of cam.

Macanese

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Portuguese chão (ground), inherited from Latin plānum (level ground).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /t͡ʃaŋ/, /t͡ʃɐŋ/

Noun

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cham (plural cham-cham)

  1. ground
  2. soil
    Fu-fula semea na cham di Hong-GongFlowers picked from the soil of Hong Kong

Middle English

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Etymology

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See ch-.

Verb

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cham

  1. I am

Old Irish

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Adjective

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cham

  1. Alternative spelling of chamm: lenited form of cam.

Polish

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Etymology

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From Cham, stemming from the belief that peasants were descended from the Biblical Ham and therefore subject to his eponymous curse.[1]

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /xam/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -am
  • Syllabification: cham
  • Homophone: Cham

Noun

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cham m pers (female equivalent chamka or chamica)

  1. (derogatory) bumpkin, yokel (arrogant, ill-manner person; one who is uncultured and uneducated)
    Synonyms: burak, chamidło, chamisko, prostak, prymityw
  2. (archaic, derogatory) countryman, peasant (person of low birth)
    Synonyms: chłop, wieśniak

Declension

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Derived terms

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adjectives
nouns
verbs
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adverbs
nouns

References

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  1. ^ Maria Gospodarczyk ((Can we date this quote?)) Marta Bucholc (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), editor, Established-Outsiders Relations in Poland: Reconfiguring Elias and Scotson[1], The Polish Peasant in Poland: Peasants in the Narratives of Polish Nation-Building, page 84

Further reading

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  • cham in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • cham in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

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Noun

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cham m (plural chans)

  1. Obsolete spelling of chão.

Scottish Gaelic

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Adjective

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cham

  1. Lenited form of cam.

Mutation

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Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical Lenition
cam cham
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Tzotzil

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Verb

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cham

  1. (intransitive) to die
    Synonyms: chʼay, chʼay ikʼ, laj, olan
    Icham.He/she died.
    Mu me jk'an xicham.I do not want to die.[1]

References

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  1. ^ Laughlin, Robert M. (1977) Of cabagges and kings: tales from Zinacantán. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 269.