Also 6 cam, 7 chaem: see KHAN. [a. F. and med.L. cham, chan, can (also caanus, canis), a. Turki khān lord, prince, KHAN, a contracted form of the earlier CHAGAN; it was assumed by Chingīz when he became supreme ruler of the Mongols and Tartars; the modified form qā’ān became the specific title of the successors of Chingīz Khān as emperors of China.]
An obsolete form of KHAN formerly commonly applied to the rulers of the Tartars and Mongols; and to the emperor of China. (Rarely to governors of provinces.)
[c. 1400. Maundev., xviii. 188. The grete Cane of Cathay. Ibid., xxi. 222. Whi he was clept the gret Chane.]
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 12. Vnder the dominion of the great Cham or Cane, Emperour of Tartaria.
1577. Hist. Trav. (ed. Willes), 265. They haue muche knowledge of the great Cam of Cathay.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 277. I will … fetch you a hayre off the great Chams beard.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxiii. § 3. 84. One of those [chairs] wherein the principall Chaems of the Empire are usually carried.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4579/1. The Grand Signior had received an Express from the Cham of Tartary.
1760. Goldsm., Cit. World, xliii. Prodigal in the production of kings, governors, mandarins, chams, and courtiers.
1813. Examiner, 25 April, 266/2. Chams are stiff gentlemen.
b. transf. and fig.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., X. lviii. 254. Against this Cham [Duke of Guise] and his Beau-Peeres, inuited English goe.
1655. trans. Sorel’s Com. Hist. Francion, V. 4. Let him know that it is I who am the great Cham, the Prester Iohn, the Sultan, the Sophy, and the great Mogull of all the wits not only of Europe, but of all the world to boot.
1759. Smollett, Lett., in Boswell, Johnson, xiii. (ed. Napier), I. 276. I am again your petitioner, in behalf of that great Cham of literature, Samuel Johnson.
1879. W. W. Synge, Tom Sing., II. iii. 32. The great cham of criticism.
