I just assumed that everyone was intentionally spelling it that way because of Hampton the dancing hampster. The guy who made the hampsterdance website said that anyone who said that there was no P in Hampster had never had a hampster.
I loved the cheesy little website and will continue to put the P where it belongs. Sorry if it irritates anyone.
Well not really. 
OK, Flampsterette_X, whatever you say…
And FTR, I do too!
“Hampster” is just as acceptable as “cow-orker” and “gotcha-ya.”
Try www.oed.com…
Try http://www.oed.com without the ellipsis. Then, have your credit card ready for a $550 subscription fee.
The OED’s word of the day for May 9, 2003, is “slam”, and “slamm” is listed as an alternate spelling. I hardly think many people would consider “slamm” correct.
The nice thing about working at a major university is that they already have a subscription to the OED. It says the hampster is an alternative spelling, but so is hamester. It also says that the word is derived from the German hamster, Middle High German hamster, and ultimately the Old High German hamastro (masculine) and Old Saxon hamstra (feminine). The “P” seems to have crept in sometime in the 19th Century:
Seems to be a newspaper typo.
Last I checked, a subscription to OED.com was more expensive than a brand-new dead-tree compact edition of the second edition (soon to be succeeded by the third ed).
On the other hand, if you’d like a compact ed (two volumes instead of twenty, plus a handy magnifying glass!) and you have some cash to spare, try www.abebooks.com – that’s where I got my beloved first ed for like ninety bucks plus four bucks shipping. (Okay, so the poor store got scalped by the software that charges shipping per book without noticing that it costs a lot more than four bucks to ship the entire English language)
Oh, and to make a comment at least tangentially relating to the OP – of course Hampster has a P in it. Do you have any idea how much Mountain Dew and Jolt that poor thing drinks?
Freddie Starr ate my hamp sandwich
How do you give a hamster big hair? Maybe a blow-dry and then a tease with a rattail comb?
I like hamastro…I think the new spelling spelling for a breeder of hamsters should be hamaestro (hamster master).
By the way, can you cross a Guinea pig with a hamster? Would that make a hampigster? : )
No one is sure what the offspring off a hamster and a guinea pig would be. It’s hampiguous.
Would it also be hampdrogenous?
What about Hamster and Gerbil? “Hamgerster”, “Hambster”?
No, maybe “Germster”?
This just in:
“What is hamburger? Chopped ham?”
“No!! It’s chopped hamster!”
“Ahhhhhh…”
[impossibly obscure reference]Hamster and Gerbil are alive and well and they’re living in Berlin. She is a cocktail waitress. He had a part in a Fassbinder film.[/impossibly obscure reference]
Like you and Rico,Flamsterette,I also cringe,but not at the spelling of the rodent. I cringe at your use of the word “SPELT”,when I think you meant “SPELLED”.
My M-W Online says SPELT is a split piece of wood,or a form of wheat. Therefore SPELT,or even “SPELPT”, is incorrect. Of course I haven’t looked up SPELPT;I could be wrong.
I read a book in which there was a creature mentioned that was a vampire hamster. I’ts owner used it to clean blood off of the clothes of people that had been injured. It was referred to as a
“vampster”
one of my friends has a cat that he named pussylips. just thought id let you know
We often referred to my high school french teacher as Hampster. Her last name was Hampton, but she was short and cute and somehow brought to mind a hamster. She was also a lot of fun and didn’t seem to mind our nickname. I had the best time in that class.
Course I was in the same group that renamed an english teacher with the last name of Norwood, to Nortree. We weren’t really very creative.
Bunnicula is a vampire bunny. I know of no hampsters who suck blood. I do know that I’ll stop using the P when you agree to call the dogs grayhounds.
Meanwhile, if one more person uses the term “gender” when he or she or other is discussing sex, I’ll have a cow. And then my cow-worker and my pleasant co-workers will pitch fits.