cham

noun

1. (alt-of, archaic)Archaic spelling of khan.

   “And ſince we haue arriu’d in Scythia, Beſides rich preſents from the puiſant Cham, UUe haue his highneſſe letters to commaund Aide and aſſiſtance if we ſtand in need.”

   “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.

   “Sitting at a table, drinking Ale, observing the Mist thro’ the Window-Panes, Mason forty-five, the Cham sixty-four.”

   “The Tonsons […] would publish Johnson's Shakespeare only by subscription, obliging the Great Cham to sell copies well ahead of publication”

3. (plural, plural-only)An ethnic group living in Cambodia and Vietnam.
4. an ethnic Albanian from Çamëri, originally resided in the western part of the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece, an area known among Albanians as Çamëri (engl.: Chameria).

verb

1. (obsolete)To chew.

   “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 [...]”

contraction

1. (West-Country, contraction, obsolete)I am

name

1. The Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by these people.
2. An abugida used to write this language.
3. A town in Bavaria, Germany.
4. A town in Zug canton, Switzerland.
5. A Chinese surname from Hokkien.

adj

1. Pertaining to the Cham people or their language.