-ham
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: Appendix:Variations of "ham"
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From the convergence of two elements:
- Middle English -ham, -hame, from Old English hām (“home, farm, estate”), from Proto-West Germanic *haim. Cognate with German -heim and Dutch -hem, and doublet of home.
- Middle English -hamme, from Old English hamm (“enclosure”, often specifically “land enclosed by a river”), from the root of Proto-West Germanic *hammjan (“to pinch, to hem, to enclose”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): (always unstressed) /əm/, /həm/
- (US) IPA(key): (with secondary stress) /ˌhæm/, (unstressed) /həm/, /əm/
This suffix often triggers a spelling pronunciation, especially after -t, as in town names like Grantham. When this happens, the /h/ in -ham is no longer pronounced.
Suffix
[edit]-ham
- Place-name suffix, variously indicating a settlement, farm or enclosure.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]- -hampton
- -hamsted, -hamstead, -hampstead (compare also homestead)
Further reading
[edit]- Key to English Place-names (2005), Institute for Name Studies, University of Nottingham.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English doublets
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English suffixes