Not in polite use. Forms: 4 bom, 6 bumbe, 6–7 bumme, bomm(e, 7–8 bumb, 6– bum. [Origin uncertain.
Probably onomatopœic, to be compared with other words of similar sound and with the general sense of ‘protuberance, swelling,’ e.g., BUMP sb., BUMB a pimple, mod.Icel. bumba belly of a cask or other vessel, Fr. bombe BOMB. Cf. also BUM v.4 (The guess that bum is ‘a mere contraction of bottom,’ besides its phonetic difficulties, is at variance with the historical fact that ‘bottom’ in this sense is found only from the 18th c.)]
1. ‘The buttocks, the part on which we sit’ (J.); the posteriors.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. VI. 357. It semeþ þat his bom is oute þat haþ þat euel [ficus, i.e., piles].
c. 1530. Redforde, Play Wit & Sc. (1848), 20. I woold thy mother had kyst thy bum!
1550. Crowley, Epigr., 1317. A bumbe lyke a barreli wyth whoopes at the skyrte.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 53. Sometime for three-foot stoole, mistaketh me, Then flip I from her bum, downe topples she.
1638. A. Read, Treat. Chirurg., xii. 97. To pull the feathers from the bummes of hens or cocks.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4441/4. A Sorrel Gelding, with … some white Hairs on his Bumb.
1785. Burns, Jolly Beggars, 42. Many a tatter’d rag hanging over my bum.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1828), II. xxiii. 329. Heating their bums or tails against them as they creep along.
2. Applied opprobriously to a person. Cf. BATIE-BUM and BUMBLE sb.2
1540. Lindesay, Satyre, 2772. Quhair Devil gat we this ill-fairde blaitie bum?
1572. [see BATIE-BUM.]
1825. Jamieson. Bum, a lazy, dirty, tawdry, careless woman.
3. colloq. Short for BUMBAILIFF; (like the F. cul for pousse-cul.)
[1663. Butler, Hud., I. I. 372. It had appeared with Courage bolder Then Sergeant Bum, invading shoulder.]
1691. Long Vacation, 1.
| Or Rescue when the Bums press hard-on | |
| Poor Debtor fly’ng through Lanes and Alleys. |
1790. Cowper, Wks. (1836), VI. 315. Threatened with attorneys and bums.
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg. (1877), 307. Serjeant Barham with his bums and tip staves.
4. Comb. (mostly obs. or nonce-words), as bum-delighting, -grown, -proof, † -thin; also † bum-barrel (? = bum-roll), some protuberant part of a woman’s dress; † bum-boating vbl. sb. (used in quot. for jostling, pushing others off the pavement); † bum-blade, a large sword; † bum-brusher, humorous for a flogging schoolmaster; † bum-creeper, ? one who walks bent almost double; † bum-dagger, cf. bum-blade; † bum-fodder, L. anitergium, hence, worthless literature; † bum-rolls, ‘stuffed cushions worn by women about the hips’ (Halliw.); † bum-trap (slang), a bailiff, a sheriff’s officer (cf. BUMBAILIFF).
1609. Ev. Wom. in Hum., I. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. Ile have no soping, no puffs, nor no Cobwebs, no busks nor *bumbarrels.
1616. Beaum. & Fl., Wit without M., III. i. Can there be aught in this but pride of show, lady, And pride of *bum-beating?
1632. Massinger, City Madam, I. ii. Draw! my little rapier against your *bumb blades!
a. 1704. T. Brown, Wks. (1760), II. 86 (D.). I [Dionysius] was forced to turn *bum-brusher.
1832. Blackw. Mag., Oct., 426. To protract existence … in the shape of bumbrushers, and so forth, after the fashion of the exalted emigrés of 1792?
a. 1652. Brome, Eng. Moor, III. iii. (1873), II. 48. All alike to me … from the huckle back’d *Bum-creeper, To the streight spiny Shop-maid of St. Martins.
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, iii. 57. The huge *bum Dagger at his backe.
1782. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode 1 to R.A.’s, Wks. 1812, I. 17. That easy *bum-delighting thing Rid by the Chancellor, yclep’d a Sack.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xiii. Torcheculs, arsewisps *bumfodders.
1753. Scots Mag., April, 208/1. (title), Bum fodder for the ladies.
1611. Cotgr., Hancher, Big haunched, well *bumme-growne.
1780–6. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode R.A.’s, Wks. 1790, I. 58. *Bum-proof to all the flogging of the schools.
1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wed., III. v. Those virtues raised her from the flat petticoat and kercher, to the gorget and *bumroll.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. xlvii. 220. Supporters, Pooters, Fardingales above the Loynes to waire, That be she near so *bombe-thin, yet she crosse-like seems foure-squaire.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones (1775), 300. The noble *bumtrap … into the hands of the jailer resolves to deliver his miserable prey.
