fam, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fam n.¹

also famm, fem, feme

1. a hand.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1728		Defoe Street Robberies Considered 32: Famms, Hands.
1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account of the Malefactors executed at Tyburn 18th March 1740 part II 7: A Gentleman who was a very Rum-muns [...] who had a very handsome Glim Star, (that is, a Ring) upon his Feme, (that is, Hand).
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: Tip us your Fam; give us your Hand.
1764		Bloody Register III 169: [as cit. 1741].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 28: And allowing for delicate fams, which have merely / Been handling the sceptre.
1826		J. Bruton ‘My Mugging Maid’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 99: The flask that in her fam appeared / The snore that her conk betrayed, / Told me that Hodge’s max had queered / My mugging maid.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 178: Ne’er was there seen such a dashing prig [...] With my fawnied famms, and my onions gay.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 59: Pipe my fams! nanty bano quester!
1850		Man of Pleasure’s Illus. Pocket-book n.p.: ‘If I arn’t got sich thin fams as your nibs, why I must nunk to it’.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 36: famms, the hands.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1881		Newcastle Courant 9 Sept. 6/5: She carried an infant, which the unringed ‘fam’ of the mother [...] indicated would bear no father’s name.
1887		W.E. Henley ‘Villon’s Good-Night’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 174: With fawneys on your dexter famm – / A mot’s good-night to one and all!
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 27: Fambles or Famms, the hands.
1897		C. Whibley ‘Vaux’ A Book of Scoundrels 185: A fawney sparkled on his dexter fam.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 119: fam, from famble. The hand.

2. a ring.

1703		Hell Upon Earth 5: Fam, a Ring.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 12: Fam, a Ring.
1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account 31 July 🌐 [We] found upwards of 15 * Ridges, besides a † Rum Fem upon his Finger [...] † Diamond Ring.
1747		Life and Character of Moll King 12: I heard she made a Fam To-night, a Rum one, with Dainty Dasies, of a Flat from T’other Side.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 142: You’ll buy a dozen or two of wipes, dobbin cants, or a fam or a tick, with any rascal, from a melting-pot receiver in Duke’s place, to a fence shop in Field Lane.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

In derivatives

fammer (n.)

(UK Und.) a pickpocket.

1846

Swell’s Night Guide 60: cracksman: She’s a dodge above a gonniff, and touches nothing below a cracksman and a swell fammer.

In compounds

fam-cheat (n.)

see fambling-cheat n.

fam-cloth (n.)

a handkerchief.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

fam-grasp (v.)

to shake hands (and make up one’s differences).

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Famgrasp, c. to agree or make up a Difference. Famgrasp the Cove c. to agree with the Adversary.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 205: [...] Famgrasp, to agree, or make up a difference. Famgrasp the cove, i.e., to agree with the adversary.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 15: To agree with a Man – Famgrasp the Cove.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Famgrasp, to shake hands, (cant) figuratively, to agree or make up a difference; famgrasp the cove, shake hands with the fellow.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 135: Go home to the Mug, and fam grasp the old mort.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 68: They had a fam-grasp, made friends.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 31: fam grasp To shake hands. ‘Fam grasp the cove,’ shake hands with the fellow.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).

fam-lay (n.) [lay n.³ (1)]

pickpocketing or shoplifting; thus fam-layer, a shoplifter.

1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 6: Fam. Layers, Such as go into Goldsmiths Shops, with pretence to buy a Ring, and several being laid upon the Counter, they Palm One or Two by means of a little Ale held in a Spoon over the Fire, with which the Palm being daub’d, any Light thing sticks to it.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.:
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) Going on the Fam-Lay. Going into a Goldsmith’s Shop, under pretence of buying a wedding Ring, and palming one or two, by daubing the hand with some viscous liquor.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1786].
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 59: Why, before I’d impose on the public in that ’ere famming fake and do the shisy dodge for scran and dossery, I’d pad the road with barkers and fake the denarley from the stiffum’s cly.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

fam-rust (n.) [fig. use of SE rust]

(UK Und.) a lack of practice at thieving (esp. pickpocketing).

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

fam-snatcher (n.)

a glove.

1830

Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 309: Also, to Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., I resign my fam-snatchers, i.e., my gloves.

fam-squeeze (n.)

throttling.

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

fam-sticks (n.)

(UK Und.) gloves.

a.1790

H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).

fam-strings (n.)

(UK Und.) gloves.

1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 19: Famstrings, alias Gloves.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxix: Famstrings Gloves.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving .

fam n.1

In derivatives

In compounds

fam n.¹