Ham
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Properly a house; 4 Inst. 294; a vill; a piece of ground shaped like the ham of the leg; Spelman. A piece of land; a home close, or little meadow; a narrow skirt, hem, or edge of meadow. A collection of houses; a village or town. Hence the names of many places in England ending with ham, as Nottingham, Buckingham, etc.
Spelman.
In Saxon and old English law. A house or dwelling; a home. At ham; at home.
LL.
Ine, c.
5.
Spelman supposes the radical meaning to be an enclosure or circuit, something that goes around. Hence the hem of a garment.