ham

Ham comes from Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm, meaning the inner or hind part of the knee. That traces back through Proto-West Germanic *hammu and Proto-Germanic *hamō to a Proto-Indo-European root *kónh₂m, meaning 'leg'.

The word started out naming a body part — the back of the knee or haunch — before narrowing to refer specifically to the cut of pork taken from that same region of the animal's leg.

It's cognate with Dutch ham, dialectal German Hamme, and Icelandic höm, all pointing to the same leg-and-knee ancestry; it's also distantly related to Ancient Greek κνήμη (knḗmē), meaning 'shinbone'. English gammon and gam share this root too.