Definition
In old English law, *hama* carried two distinct meanings:
1. A hook, or more specifically, an engine (mechanical implement) used to pull down a burning house. This was a recognized firefighting instrument in medieval England, used to demolish structures in the path of fire to prevent its spread.
2. A piece of land. In this sense, *hama* appears as a unit or parcel of land in older English legal and conveyancing contexts. See also *hamma*, which some sources treat as the more precise spelling for this land-meaning.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A city in Syria.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed; the term did not appear in general English usage by the nineteenth century.
The common modern reference to Hama — as a Syrian city — bears no relationship to the old English legal term. Researchers encountering *hama* in medieval English legal manuscripts or land records should not import any geographic or modern meaning. The term is purely a relic of early English law.
Common Confusion
The two legal meanings of *hama* — firefighting implement and land parcel — are distinct and context-dependent. Burrill's Law Dictionary flags *hamma* as the more precise form when the land meaning is intended. Researchers should check spelling variants carefully in manuscript sources, as copyist variation between *hama* and *hamma* may obscure which meaning was intended. The land-parcel meaning connects to a broader family of Old English and Latin land-tenure terminology; the implement meaning connects to early municipal and fire law.
Why It Matters in Research
*Hama* is a low-frequency term unlikely to appear outside of highly specialized medieval English legal sources — primarily manor rolls, early plea rolls, fire-related ordinances, or land grants predating the common forms of conveyancing. Two research traps exist.
First, the dual meaning creates interpretive risk. A reference to *hama* in a land record almost certainly invokes the land-parcel sense; a reference in a narrative account of urban fire or in a municipal ordinance invokes the hook-and-engine sense. Context must drive the reading.
Second, the spelling variant *hamma* matters. Burrill explicitly cross-references *hamma* for the land meaning, suggesting the two spellings were not always used interchangeably in original sources even if the dictionaries treat them as near-synonyms. If searching a digitized corpus, run both spellings.
The firefighting implement sense is historically interesting beyond mere vocabulary: it reflects a recognized legal and practical response to urban fire in medieval England — demolition as a firebreak — which had legal consequences for property owners whose structures were pulled down. Whether compensation was owed, and under what authority the hook was used, are questions that would surface in adjacent legal materials.
The land-parcel sense connects *hama* to the dense vocabulary of Old English and Anglo-Latin land tenure: *hide*, *virgate*, *bovate*, *carucate*, and related measures. Researchers working in Domesday-era or early post-Conquest materials should treat *hama* as part of that family and consult specialist glossaries of Anglo-Latin.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries — Black's (1st and 2nd editions), Burrill's, and Bouvier's — are in close agreement. All three meanings (hook, firefighting engine, piece of land) are present across sources, and the Yelverton citation (*Yel. 60*) is cited consistently as authority for the hook-and-engine definition. Burrill adds the most navigational value by explicitly cross-referencing *hamma* for the land meaning, signaling to the researcher that the two spellings carry differentiated weight in the historical literature.
No source provides substantive elaboration on the land-parcel meaning beyond the bare statement that *hama* denotes a piece of land. This is a gap. Researchers seeking the technical dimensions of *hama* as a land unit — its size, its relationship to other land measures, its regional distribution — will need to go beyond these dictionary entries to specialist works on Anglo-Saxon and medieval English land tenure.
The Yelverton citation (*Yelv. 60*) refers to the reports of Sir Christopher Yelverton, published reports of early seventeenth-century English cases. Researchers verifying the hook-and-engine usage should consult that source directly.
Jurisdictional Note
*Hama* is a term of old English law with no known counterpart in Scots law, Irish law, or civil law systems. It does not appear in American legal usage. Research relevance is confined to English legal history, primarily pre-1400.