Ham-fisted and ham-handed are idioms that date to the 1800s. We will examine the meaning of the common sayings ham-fisted and ham-handed, where they came from, and some examples of their idiomatic usage in sentences.
Ham-fisted and ham-handed mean clumsy, incompetent, awkward. A ham is the hock and hip of a pig. The terms ham-fisted and ham-handed are hyphenated compound words. Compounds or compound words are words that are derived from two separate words joined together. The expressions ham-fisted and ham-handed were first used in the latter-1800s, though they came into popular use sometime in the 1920s. Today, the term ham-fisted is about a third more popular than ham-handed.
Examples
Despite his administration’s ham-fisted response to the various crises currently facing Mexico, AMLO remains popular. (Forbes Magazine)
Edinburgh Council’s ham-fisted help for shops does little or no good – Kevin Buckle (Edinburgh Evening News)
Just because an attempt to steal an election is ludicrous and ham-handed doesn’t mean it can’t work (The Washington Post)
To put it bluntly, the school system’s ham-handed approach to bringing students back to campuses has turned back time in many minds. (The Savannah Morning News)
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