or bunse, bunt, subs. (old).—Originally money: see RHINO; but more generally, profit, gain, anything to the good: see quot. 1851. Hence BUNCER = one who sells on commission.
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 278. If cards come no better. Oh! oh! I shall lose all my BUNS.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 37. There are still other ‘agents’ among the costermongers, and these are the ‘boys’ deputed to sell a man’s goods for a certain sum, all over that amount being the boys’ profit or BUNTS. Ibid., 526. There are a great number of boys … engaged by costermongers or small tradesmen, to sell upon commission, or, as it is termed, for BUNSE (probably a corruption of bonus, bone being the slang for good)…. The mode is this: a certain quantity of saleable commodities is given to a boy whom a costermonger knows and perhaps employs, and it is arranged that the young commission-agent is to get a particular sum for them, which must be paid to the costermonger; I will say 3s. For these articles the lad may ask and obtain any price he can, and whatever he obtains beyond the stipulated 3s., is his own profit or BUNSE. Ibid., 36. But you see the boys will try it on for their BUNTS.
1859. HOTTEN, The Slang Dictionary, s.v. BUNCE, costermongers’ perquisites; the money obtained by giving light weight, etc.; costermongers’ goods sold by boys on commission. In fact anything which is clear profit or gain is said to be ‘all BUNCE.’ Probably a corruption of bonus; BONE, or BONER, being the slang for good.
1881. A Chequered Career, 270. In the stable, and particularly in livery-stables, there is a box into which all tips are placed. This is called BUNT.
1901. The Sporting Times, 17 Aug., 1, 4. There’s no BUNCE in letting lodgings, when the lodgers only pay In their fancy!
