English
indict a ham sandwich
Indict a ham sandwich may come from English sandwich ‘something utterly commonplace, of modest value’.
- English1500–presentsandwich‘something utterly commonplace, of modest value’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1979indict a ham sandwich
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- English1500–presentsandwich‘something utterly commonplace, of modest value’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1979indict a ham sandwich
Earliest quotation: 1979, Nancy Monaghan, Grand jury system—justice behind closed doors: “Advocates of the grand jury say it is the…”
Made of the words indict + a + ham + sandwich
Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos ‘one’
Proto-Germanic *ainaz ‘one’
Proto-West Germanic *ain ‘one’
Old English ān ‘one; a certain’
Middle English a
English a
Proto-Indo-European *kónh₂m ‘leg’
Proto-Germanic *hamō
Proto-West Germanic *hammu
Old English hamm ‘inner or hind part of the knee, ham’
Middle English hamme ‘the back or inside of the knee’
English ham
The story
The term was popularized by the American jurist Sol Wachtler (born 1930) who used it in 1985 shortly after his appointment as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals when expressing the view that the use of grand juries to bring indictments should be abolished: see the quotation from 1985.
Every English word from English sandwich
Today it means
verb Of a grand jury: to charge a person with a crime, despite a perceived lack of evidence.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English sandwich / indict a ham sandwich