Why is Rosalind ham?

I'm reading Agatha Christie and enjoy some of the vocabulary a lot. This was written shortly after the war and Rosalind is very beautiful but "ham", meaning stupid.

Why "ham"?

Also, George is "wet", meaning something like weak or a wimp.

Can anyone give some background to these?

 

I suppose it depends on the personalities of the characters and how they fit into the plot. Someone called George could be described as 'wet' and someone called Rosalind as 'ham' if that's what their characters in the story are like.

Which books are they in ?

Also words can change their meanings over the years, cool and gay are two I can think of right now.

 

"Wet" was commonly used in my youth; you made me wonder about the use of the term "Tory Wet" and searching for that found:

Wets and dries - Wikipedia

In which it says:
In British slang, "wet" meant weak, "inept, ineffectual, effete". Within the political context, the term was used by Thatcher's supporters as both as a noun and as an adjective to characterise people or policies which Thatcher would have considered weak or "wet".

I haven't heard the term "ham" for being stupid, only for being theatrical and overacting.

 

Ah- Rosalind is an actress. But the word is used to describe her when there is apparently not much moving between her ears.

@Michael Hewett , it' After the Funeral. A very good book

 

If you say someone is hamming it up, it means they are overacting, being over-the-top. So someone who is a ham is overly theatrical but bad at it - in an amateur way. So I suppose it could imply they haven’t the intelligence or depth of character to be a good actor?

 

In the 1860s, ham began to be used in America for somebody who was stupid, clumsy or worthless, especially an untalented prize fighter. This is most likely to have been borrowed from ham-handed or ham-fisted, meaning a person with large hands that fancifully resembled the prepared ham of a pig, hence clumsy.

 

This is very interesting, thanks all!

BTW- I'm doing the young Lady injustice, she is Rosamund and not Rosalind.

Agatha's books are a fun way to time hop from between wars time to 60's.

 

I remember Hammy the hamster.
Tales of the riverbank.

 

I haven't read any of her books (I fall asleep whenever I try to read something) but I've seen most of the tv adaptations of Poirot and Miss Marple - probably not as good as the books, a film seldom is ... and I've seen After the Funeral.
Yes I remember there's a Rosamund in it. I can't recall what sort of character she is though, except that you've said she was 'ham'.

 

You must have heard the expression 'hamming it up' when referring to over-acting and doing it quite badly? It doesn't mean 'stupid'. Rosamund is an actress in this particular book.