This week’s theme
Words derived from body

This week’s words
gambit
propugnaculum
flatfooted
consanguineous
ham-handed

This week’s comments
AWADmail 960

Next week’s theme
Supervocalic words

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(HAM-han-did)

MEANING:

adjective: Clumsy; tactless; lacking social grace.

ETYMOLOGY:

From ham + hand. It’s the same ham (one who overacts), apparently from the minstrel song, “The Hamfat Man”. Earliest documented use: 1918.

USAGE:

“There was a certain thrill, a challenge in taking an ordinary man who was ham-handed with compliments and possessed of two left feet, and turn him into something sublime.”
Bronwyn Scott; A Lady Seduces; Harlequin; 2013.

See more usage examples of ham-handed in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: