Gam is the whaling sense (a social meeting of ships, or a school of whales) is of uncertain 19th-century American origin; the 'leg' sense is slang, perhaps from dialectal 'gam' or French 'jambe' ('leg'). The history is deliberately cautious: the proposed comparison is useful for orientation, but the wording leaves room for uncertainty rather than forcing a false certainty. In present use, it is used as a noun and verb meaning "a social visit between whaling ships; a school of whales; a leg", so the historical material remains connected with the current sense rather than standing as bare ancestry. Its semantic neighborhood includes leg, school, pod, and visit, locating the modern specialization without adding a new origin story.