Many teenagers seem to have their own language and it is difficult for "outsiders" to comprehend anything they are saying. The expressions may literally denote one entity and the slang meaning may symbolize something totally different. To many St. Ignatius students, the phrase "ham up" has an entirely different meaning than might be expected.
The current application of "ham up" originated an innumerable number of years ago during a third grade class. The discussion was on the subject of nicknames, and the teacher went around the room inquiring each of the students' particular nicknames. The teacher reached Ryan and requested his nickname. Ryan mentioned his psuedonym of Ry. The student seated next to him, upon hearing the mention of a popular sandwich bread, cried out, "Ham on rye!" The class had a jolly good laugh and the teacher quickly restored order. A select group of students began calling him by this new nickname. As the years passed, more and more students referred to Ryan as Ham On Rye. By his eighth grade graduation his real name was virtually forgotten as Ryan was simply known to the world as Ham On Rye.
Ham On Rye went on to St. Ignatius High School with a few grade school classmates. The name went unnoticed freshman year because he was in very few classes with his grade school companions. Then sophomore year arrived and he was in seven of eight classes with one of them. The student brought glory to the tradition of Ham On Rye, prompting other students to revive the nickname. The students noticed that "Hi, Ham On," had a nice ring to it, compelling them to shorten the moniker. Thus, in the span of seven short years the nickname had mutated from Ry to Ham On Rye to Ham On.
A single incident caused a change in the nickname once again. This time a new phrase, as well as a new nickname, was introduced to the school. The incident occurred during a geometry class. Ham On was having a rough day and did not feel well at all. Suddenly, to the surprise of the class, and himself as well, he vomited onto the floor. He rushed off to the clinic and recovered in time for his eighth period class. The students who witnessed the happening related the story to those who had missed it. As one student summarized, "Ham On hammed up." A new term was born and the details of the episode were spread throughout the school. Ham On received ample recognition from his peers for his performance in geometry, but the great product of the incident was the distinction of the new phrase "ham up." Many students know the story and many have heard "ham up" spoken in the halls of St, Ignatius, but few know the true story of how the term came into context.
The term "ham up" is not one of the popular slang terms in the whole of the universe, but it is a classic example of how a word can have a totally different meaning than what the word actually implies. "Ham up" is but one of the numerous words and phrases introduced to a language in an obscure way, with the original meaning of the word forgotten and lost forever through the passage of time.
© 2001 ryan@forsythe.to