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gammon

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gammon¹

  • /ˈɡæmən/

Rhymes with -æmən

Where it comes from

From Middle English *gammon, gambon, from Old French gambon (compare modern French jambon (“ham”)), from gambe (“leg”), from Late Latin gamba, from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ). Doublet of jambon and jamon.

noun gammons

  1. countable, uncountable A cut of quick-cured pork leg. [T]he cooks were laying a refection before him of sack and anchovies and garlic sausage and gammons of bacon and - this was the important item - a great pudding dish out of which rose the noble dome of a crisp brown pie-crust.

verb gammons · gammoning · gammoned

  1. To cure bacon by salting.

gammon²

  • /ˈɡæmən/

Rhymes with -æmən

Where it comes from

From Middle English gamenen, gamene, from Old English gamnian, gæmnian, gamenian (“to joke, play”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamanōn, from Proto-Germanic *gamanōną (“to play, have fun, joke”). Cognate with Middle High German gamenen (“to mock, make fun of”), Icelandic gamna (“to have fun”). More at game.

verb gammons · gammoning · gammoned · gamen · gammen

  1. dialectal To joke, kid around, play.
  2. To beat by a gammon (without the opponent bearing off a stone).

noun gammons · gamen · gammen · gammin · gamon

  1. countable, dialectal, uncountable A joke, trick; play, sport, merriment.
  2. countable, uncountable A victory in backgammon achieved when the opponent has not borne off a single stone. Toward the end of the game Roger had not borne off a single stone belonging to Roseanna, and she scored a gammon. She could not hide the triumph in her eyes. “Perhaps you will play a better game if we play for something closer to your heart,” she suggested.
  3. countable, rare, uncountable Backgammon (the game itself). We started about 7:00 drinking beers and playing gammon. Then after getting a little “loose” we went to a girls dorm.

gammon³

  • /ˈɡæmən/

Rhymes with -æmən

Where it comes from

Perhaps related to the first etymology, with reference to tying up a ham.

noun gammons

  1. A rope fastening a bowsprit to the stem of a ship (usually called a gammoning).

verb gammons · gammoning · gammoned

  1. To lash with ropes (on a ship). “No, by thunder !” he cried, “it's us must break the treaty when the time comes; and till then I'll gammon that doctor, if I have to ile his boots with brandy.”

gammon⁴

  • /ˈɡæmən/

Rhymes with -æmən

Where it comes from

Perhaps a special use of the word from etymology 2.

noun

  1. dated, uncountable Chatter, ridiculous nonsense. Some people maintains^([sic]) that an Englishman's house is his castle. That's gammon.

    Similar: gammon and pickles

verb gammons · gammoning · gammoned

  1. colloquial, dated, transitive To deceive; to lie plausibly to. And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spa

adjective more gammon · most gammon

  1. Papua New Guinea Fake, pretend; bullshit. I was just being gammon.

gammon⁵

  • /ˈɡæmən/

Rhymes with -æmən

Where it comes from

Gained popularity in 2017 (in the phrase "Great Wall of Gammon", likening the referents' rosy complexions to gammon (“ham, bacon”)), although the metaphor was in use earlier: the BBC points to a 2016 use of “gammon face”.

noun gammons

  1. UK, countable, derogatory, neologism, uncountable A middle-aged or older right-wing, reactionary white man, or such men collectively. Yeah, let the bitch drown / Got the gammons all feeling sick now / Great Britannia's lost all hope, she's broke

Gammon⁶

proper noun

  1. Ireland the Shelta or Cant language of the Irish Travelling Community.

Translations

Every language

noun lower or hind part of a side of bacon

Русскийо́корок ókorok

verb nautical: rope fastening bowsprit to stem

Españolbarbiquejo, barboquejo

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"gammon." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/gammon. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

gammon. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/gammon

Chicago

"gammon." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/gammon.

BibTeX
@misc{gammon_2026,
  title = {gammon},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/gammon},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}