HamitIc

[Eng., ., Hamit ( e ); -ic.] Ethnol. & Philol .: Of or belonging to Ham, his descendants or their languages. The name corre sponds to the term Semitic for the Syro-Arabian languages, but there is difficulty in connection with both, for Canaan was the son of Ham, but his descendants apparently spoke Phoenician, which was not an Hamitic, but a Semitic tongue. The term is sometimes used for the great but imperfectly known family of distinctively African languages. *hăm'-kin, s . [Etym. doubtful.] A pudding made of a shoulder of mutton.