# cham
## English
### Etymology 1

From French cham, from Ottoman Turkish خان (han) (see there for more).

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kæm/
* Rhymes: -æm

#### Noun

cham (plural chams)
* 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 […]
* 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

See chap.

#### Verb

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

From Middle English icham, equivalent to ch- +‎ am, from ich + am.

#### Contraction

cham
* (West Country, obsolete) I am

##### Synonyms

* I'm

#### References

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

### Anagrams

* ACMH, HAMC, HMAC, Mach, Mach., mach.

## Antillean Creole
### Etymology

From French charme.

### Noun

cham
* potion

## French
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Vietnamese Chăm, from Eastern Cham Cam.

#### Adjective

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

#### Noun

cham m (plural chams)
* Cham (language)

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish خان (han, “khan”).

#### Noun

cham m (plural chams)
* Obsolete form of khan (“khan”).

### Further reading

* “cham” in Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1872–1877.
* “cham”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Irish
### Pronunciation

* (Munster) IPA: [xaumˠ]
* (Galway) IPA: [xɑːmˠ]
* (Mayo, Ulster) IPA: [xamˠ]

### Adjective

cham
* Lenited form of cam.

## Macanese
### Alternative forms

* (modern spelling) chám

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /t͡ʃaŋ/, /t͡ʃɐŋ/

### Noun

cham (plural cham-cham)
* ground
* soil
    Fu-fula semea na cham di Hong-Gong ― Flowers picked from the soil of Hong Kong

## Middle English
### Etymology

See ch-.

### Verb

cham
* I am

## Old Irish
### Adjective

cham
* Alternative spelling of chamm: lenited form of cam.

## Polish
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈxam/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -am
* Syllabification: cham
* Homophone: Cham

### Noun

cham m pers (female equivalent chamka or chamica)
* (derogatory) bumpkin, yokel (arrogant, ill-manner person; one who is uncultured and uneducated)
    Synonyms: burak, chamidło, chamisko, prostak, prymityw
* (archaic, derogatory) countryman, peasant (person of low birth)
    Synonyms: chłop, wieśniak

#### Derived terms

* chamowaty
* chamski
* chamidło
* chamisko
* chamstwo
* chamuś
* chamieć impf
* schamieć pf

#### Related terms

* chamsko
* na chama
* Cham
* chamskość

### References

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

### Further reading

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

## Portuguese
### Noun

cham m (plural chans)
* Obsolete spelling of chão.

## Scottish Gaelic
### Adjective

cham
* Lenited form of cam.

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

## Tzotzil
### Verb

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

### References

* ↑ Laughlin, Robert M. (1977) Of cabagges and kings: tales from Zinacantán. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 269.
* Laughlin, Robert M. [et al.] (1988) The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of Santo Domingo Zinacantán, vol. I. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.