Hams

[al.1]

Hello Jonathan,

I have noticed that a great deal of towns and villages in the UK
have in their names “ham”, e.g.:
Chatham
Gillingham
Luisham
Teynham
Rainham
Meopham
Hamstreet
Faversham (by the way the oldest brewery in the UK is there)
and many more
(not to mention other names, e.g.: Hamilton, hamster ;)
Question: Were the above places connected with amateurs of ham or
its production? If so, I presume they had stressed they preferred
ham than sausages.

[Gość: Hammock]

Ham is an old word for village.

[seth.destructor]

It is different version of the word home. The same is in the
couple an - one. Formerly there was a diphthong ai
that had developed in two ways.

[Gość: Steve]

Derived from the anglo-saxon 'ham', which has three meanings. In a person's name
it often means 'the people of'. A place may be called after the family, normally
nobles who lived there. Second, 'ham' means home, residence, property - so again
the place is named after the people who lived there. Both of these are directly
equivalent to '-owski'. Finally, it means village or collection of living
places. Some place names eg "Dulwich Hamlet' use this variation to mean a small
settlement.

An Anglo-Saxon dictionary gives some details of circumstances of uses. 'It is so
frequently coupled with words implying the presence of water as to render it
probable that it denotes a piece of land surrounded with paling, wicker-work,
etc., and so defended against the stream, which would otherwise wash it away.'
'It is the general assemblage of the dwellings in each particular district, to
which the arable land and pasture of the community were appurtenant, the home of
all the settlers in a separate and well defined locality, the collection of the
houses of the freemen. Whenever we can assure ourselves that the vowel is long,
we may be certain that the name implies such a village or community.'

[krooowka]

al.1 napisał:

> Were the above places connected with amateurs of ham or
> its production?

very funny :)

'ham' = 'village', just like 'wick' (Hampton Wick, Warwick)