[Skeat says from Mid. Eng. Gamen = a game; but R. Sherwood (Eng. Dict., 1660), gives ‘a beggar or seller of gammons of Bacon; and in Cotgrave (1611), jambonnier = a beggar, also a seller of bacon, or gammons of bacon.’]
c. 1363. Chester Plays, i. 102. This gammon shall begin.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I. 208. I thought myself pretty much a master of gammon, but the Billingsgate eloquence of Mrs. P. … exceeded me.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Gamon. What rum gamon the old file pitched to the flat.
1823. Mod. Flash Dict. gammon—Falsehood and bombast.
1823–45. Hood, Poems (ed. 1846), vi., p. 96, Behold yon servitor of God and Mammon, Who, binding up his Bible with his ledger, Blends Gospel texts with trading gammon.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxvii. Lord bless their little hearts, they thinks its all right, and don’t know no better, but they’re the wictims o’ gammon, Samivel, they’re the wictims o’ gammon. [[112]]
1837. Barham, I. L., Blasphemer’s Warning. When each tries to humbug his dear Royal Brother, in Hopes by such gammon to take one another in.
1839. Comic Almanack, Jan. But if you wish to save your bacon, Give us less gammon.
1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. ‘Oh, my goodness, how polite we are!’ exclaimed Miss Mowcher.… ‘What a world of gammon and spinnage it is!’