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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL6 source sections across 1 headword matching “Bum”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
bumEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Attested since the 1300s, as Middle English bom (found in John Trevisa's 1387 Translation of the 'Polychronicon' of Ranulph Higden, "his bom is oute"), of uncertain origin. Sometimes suggested to be a shortening of botme, botom, bottum (“bottom”), but this is contradicted by the fact that bottom is not attested in reference to the buttocks until the late 1700s. Suggested by some old and modern references to be onomatopoeic. Compare also Old Irish, Scottish Gaelic bun (“base, bottom”). The anal sex senses (noun and verb), as well as the adjective (esp. the first) sense, are expletive-avoiding (i.e. Bowdlerized) shortenings of bumfuck.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bumEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
1864, back-formation from bummer, from German Bummler (“loafer”), from bummeln (“to loaf”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bumEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
1864, back-formation from bummer, from German Bummler (“loafer”), from bummeln (“to loaf”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bumEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
Back-formation from bum out.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bumEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
bumEnglish (en) · Etymology 5Source text
Abbreviation.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
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Chambers (1908)
1908- BumEnglish · e-37683-3644
Bum, bum, n. (Shak.) the buttocks.—ns. Bum′-bail′iff, an under-bailiff; Bum′-boat, boat for carrying provisions to a ship, originally a Thames scavenger's boat. [Ety. dub., prob. from bump, from sense of 'swelling.']
Read the full source record → - BumEnglish · e-37683-3645
Bum, bum, v.i. to hum or make a murmuring sound, as a bee: (slang) to live dissolutely.—pr.p. bum′ming; pa.p. bummed.—n. a humming sound: a spree, debauch: a dissipated fellow. [Onomatopœic.]
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