Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

gammon

/ˈɡæmən/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun

Forms gammons gammoning gammoned gamen gammen gammin gamon

  1. noun A cut of quick-cured pork leg.
  2. verb To cure bacon by salting.
  3. verb (dialectal) To joke, kid around, play.
  4. verb (backgammon) To beat by a gammon (without the opponent bearing off a stone).
  5. noun (dialectal) A joke, trick; play, sport, merriment.
  6. noun (backgammon) A victory in backgammon achieved when the opponent has not borne off a single stone.
  7. noun (rare) Backgammon (the game itself).
  8. noun (nautical) A rope fastening a bowsprit to the stem of a ship (usually called a gammoning).
  9. verb To lash with ropes (on a ship).
  10. noun (dated) Chatter, ridiculous nonsense.
  11. verb (colloquial, dated, transitive) To deceive; to lie plausibly to.
  12. adjective (Papua New Guinea, Australian Aboriginal, chiefly Queensland, Northern Territory) Fake, pretend; bullshit. “I was just being gammon.”
  13. noun (neologism, derogatory, UK) A middle-aged or older right-wing, reactionary white man, or such men collectively.
  14. proper noun (Ireland) the Shelta or Cant language of the Irish Travelling Community.

Synonyms

gammon and pickles ham jambon

Etymology

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.

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.

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

Perhaps a special use of the word from etymology 2.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The buttock or tight of a hog, salted and smoked or dried; the lower end of a flitch. Goldsmith.
  2. verb To make bacon of; to salt and dry in smoke.
  3. noun Backgammon.
  4. noun An imposition or hoax; humbug. [Colloq.]

Etymology [OF. gambon, F. jambon, fr. OF. gambe leg, F. jambe. See Gambol, n., and cf. Ham.]

Etymology [See 2d Game.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gammon”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details