Ham-Sam...

Posted by ESC on August 11, 2004

In Reply to: Ham-Sam... posted by Gegzy on August 11, 2004

: I've used the phrase "ham-sam" in sentences. Example, "I've been so lucky on the fruit machines today, it was chucking out money ham-sam"

: But where did it come from? I've grown up with the saying and nobody has questioned it before, but I mentioned it yesterday to someone and he'd never heard of the saying. And thinking on, I couldn't really offer him an explanation.

: Any ideas?

ham-sam -- adverb. (English Dialect Dictionary: "in confusion or disorder") 1959 VT Hist. 27.140. neVt, Ham-sam...In disorder. Rare.

From "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume II by Frederic G. Cassidy and Joan Houston Hall (1991, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England).