English

Proper noun

Cham

1. An ethnic group living in Cambodia and Vietnam.
2. The Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by these people.

Translations

Adjective

Cham ‎(comparative more Cham, superlative most Cham)

1. Pertaining to the Cham people or their language.

Translations

Polish

Proper noun

Cham m

1. Ham

Declension

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kæm/

Noun

cham ‎(plural chams)

1. Archaic spelling of khan.
   • 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: "Sitting at a table, drinking Ale, observing the Mist thro’ the Window-Panes, Mason forty-five, the Cham sixty-four." — Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
   • 2007: The Tonsons […] would publish Johnson's Shakespeare only by subscription, obliging the Great Cham to sell copies well ahead of publication — Michael Dobson, ‘For his Nose was as sharpe as a Pen’, London Review of Books 29:9, p. 3

Etymology 2

See chap.

Verb

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 [...]

Anagrams

• Mach

French

Etymology 1

From Vietnamese Chăm, from Eastern Cham Cam.

Adjective

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

1. Cham

Etymology 2

From Turkish han ‎(“khan”).

Noun

cham m ‎(plural chams)

1. khan

Irish

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): [xaumˠ]
• (Galway) IPA^(key): [xɑːmˠ]
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): [xamˠ]

Adjective

cham

1. Lenited form of cam.

Middle English

Etymology

See ch-.

Verb

cham

1. I am.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xam/

Noun

cham m pers

1. (derogatory) an arrogant, ill-mannered person
2. (archaic) peasant; countryman; person of low birth

Declension

Synonyms

• (ill-mannered person): prostak, prymityw
• (countryman): wieśniak

Portuguese

Noun

cham m (plural chãos)

1. Obsolete spelling of chão

Tzotzil

Verb

cham

1. (intransitive) to die

   Icham.

   He/she died.

   Mu me jk'an xicham.^[1]

   I do not want to die.

Synonyms

• ch'ay, ch'ay ik', laj, olan

References

1. ↑ 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.