Hamburger - Defined

"hamburger" defined from www.Dictionary.com

1.	A sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground or chopped beef, usually in a roll or bun, variously garnished.

2.	Ground or chopped beef.

3.	Also called Hamburg steak. a patty of ground or chopped beef, seasoned and fried or broiled.

Short for Hamburger steak, after Hamburg

Word History:
Because the world has eaten countless hamburgers, the origins of the name may be of interest to many. By the middle of the 19th century people in the port city of Hamburg, Germany, enjoyed a form of pounded beef called Hamburg steak. The large numbers of Germans who migrated to North America during this time probably brought the dish and its name along with them. The entrée may have appeared on an American menu as early as 1836, although the first recorded use of Hamburg steak is not found until 1884. The variant form hamburger steak, using the German adjective Hamburger meaning "from Hamburg," first appears in a Walla Walla, Washington, newspaper in 1889. By 1902 we find the first description of a Hamburg steak close to our conception of the hamburger, namely a recipe calling for ground beef mixed with onion and pepper. By then the hamburger was on its way, to be followed—much later—by the shortened form burger, used in forming cheeseburger and the names of other variations on the basic burger, as well as on its own.

Hamburger

1889, hamburg steak, from the Ger. city of Hamburg, though no certain connection has ever been put forth, and there may not be one beyond that of Hamburg being a major port of departure for Ger. immigrants to U.S. Shortened form burger attested from 1939; beefburger was attempted 1940, in an attempt to make the main ingredient more explicit, after the -burger had taken on a life of its own as a suffix (cf. cheeseburger, first attested 1938).