hamburger

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Hamburger (“of Hamburg; a native of Hamburg”),^[2][3][4][5] from Hamburg, the name of the city and port in northern Germany.^[6][7][8][9] The food sense is a shortening of “Hamburger steak”, an American term that replaced the earlier “Hamburg steak”.^{[7][4][10][9][11][12]} Barnhart suggests that the steak may have been associated with Hamburg because many immigrants left for the United States from that port,^[4] and Etymonline doubts that any certain connection with the city has been shown.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A native or inhabitant of Hamburg: 1617, in a letter of George Carew.^[2][3] The food sense, chopped beef in the form of a Hamburger steak, is first recorded in 1875, in an Ohio newspaper.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Hamburg beef, a smoked and spiced beef, is recorded by 1767, and a Hamburgh sausage in Hannah Glasse's cookery book by 1774.^[13] According to Ayto, shaping minced beef into patties was common in northern Europe in the 19th century, and German sailors or emigrants brought the dish to America;^[6] Merriam-Webster dates its arrival with German immigrants to the 1850s.^[7] There it was called a Hamburg steak, and by 1889 more often a hamburger steak;^[7][4] Merriam-Webster dates hamburger steak to 1884^[10] and the OED to 1875.^[2] By 1908 the word was shortened to hamburger,^[4][7] and a hamburger sandwich, the patty in a bun, is recorded from 1902,^[13][14] with hamburger alone for the sandwich by 1909.^[13] By the 1930s it was an American fast-food staple,^[6] and the ending was reanalysed as -burger, giving cheeseburger (1938), burger (1939) and beefburger (1940).^[13][6][7] Since the early 1950s the clipped hamburg has been used in the north-eastern United States, especially New England.^[7] In American slang a hamburger was also a stupid or worthless person or animal (1933).^[15] In computing it now also names an icon of three horizontal lines that opens a menu, from its supposed likeness to a hamburger in a bun.^[11]

Timeline

• 1617 – Hamburger, a native of Hamburg.^[2][13]
• 1767 – Hamburg beef, a smoked spiced beef.^[13]
• 1850s – German immigrants bring Hamburg steak to the United States.^[7]
• 1875 – Hamburger steak, chopped beef.^[2]
• 1889 – hamburger steak replaces Hamburg steak.^[7][4]
• 1902 – hamburger sandwich.^[13][14]
• 1908 – hamburger alone, for the meat.^[4][7]
• 1909 – the sandwich.^[13]
• 1933 – American slang, a stupid or worthless person or animal.^[15]
• 1938 – cheeseburger; 1939, burger.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flat round patty of ground beef, fried or grilled.^[11][10][2]
2. A sandwich of such a patty in a split round bun, often with relish or onion: They stopped for hamburgers on the way home.^[10][11][3]
3. (chiefly US) Ground beef.^[10][2]
4. (computing, informal) An icon of three horizontal lines that opens a menu on a web page or app.^[11]
5. (usually Hamburger) A native or inhabitant of Hamburg.^[2][3]

Word family

• burger
• cheeseburger

Related words

• beefburger

Usage notes

Despite its name, the hamburger has nothing to do with ham: the first syllable belongs to the name of the city.^[6][7] Several places claim to have invented the sandwich, among them a New Haven lunch wagon said to have served one in 1900 and a farm near Tulsa said to have put one in a bun in 1891.^[16][14] Barry Popik notes that these claims are disputed.^[16][14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c d Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Hamburger Bun", 25 April 2014
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Hamburger Restaurant", 25 April 2014