Meaning
To act or behave in a wildly exaggerated, showy way that plays for laughs or attention; the standard informal verb for overacting on stage or screen, and in everyday use it describes anyone milking a moment or playing up their reactions for effect. Informal and usually teasing rather than damning. Informal; teasing-to-mildly-critical tone, often affectionate about theatrical excess. Regional use: General English (American theatrical origin).
Origin
American theatrical slang of the 1880s: the noun 'ham', an overacting, inferior performer, is documented from 1882, apparently a shortening of 'hamfatter' (1880), a low-grade actor. From at least 1889 the word was linked to the minstrel song 'The Ham-fat Man' (known by 1856), though the song itself is not about acting; the suggested bridge is the low standard of performance in minstrel shows where the tune was sung. A rival traditional story has poor actors removing makeup with ham fat, but that practice is not documented in the early record and Etymonline calls the derivation obscure, so the ham-fat explanation should be treated as plausible but unproven. The verb 'to ham' and the phrase 'ham it up' followed later: Etymonline dates the verb to 1933 and the adjective to 1935, and World Wide Words notes the noun was already general American slang for any inexpert performer by the 1880s.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- ham actor
- ham it
- ham it for the cameras
- hamming it up
Usage Examples
- The villain hammed it up so shamelessly that the audience started laughing during the suspense scenes.
- She doesn't sing that ballad seriously anymore; she hams it up with jazz hands at every chorus.
- Give him one compliment and he will ham it up for the next ten minutes.