1663. Butler, Hudibras, I., i., 393.
It had appeared with courage bolder,
Then Sergeant Bum, invading shoulder.
1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. VII., p. 153.
The Vermin of the Law, the Bum,
Who gladly kept his distance,
Does safely now in Triumph come.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, bk. III., ch. i. ‘Juggings has got his rent
to pay, and is afeard of the bums.’
3. (public schools’.)—A birching; ‘hiding’ or ‘tanning.’ For synonyms,
see Tanning. Cf., also Bash and Baste.
Verb (old).—To arrest. [An obvious allusion to the duty of a bum or
bum-bailiff (q.v.).]
Cherry Bums, subs. (military).—The 11th Hussars. Cherry-bum is a
corruption of Cherubim; but the obvious reference is to the scarlet
trowsers worn by this branch of the service. A similar nickname is
given to the French Chasseurs—Culs rouges.—See Cherubim.
To toe one’s bum, phr. (low).—An implied threat of physical
castigation, rarely, however, carried out literally; to put or ‘chuck’
out; to show the door to—either will explain the meaning. Sometimes the
phrase occurs as ‘to hoof one’s bum.’
French Synonyms. Sauter sur la contrebasse (popular); filer un coup de
trottinet dans l’oignon (thieves’); boucher la lumière (popular:
properly ‘to stuff up the touch-hole’); enlever le ballon à quelqu’un
(popular: the allusion is to raising an air balloon with the foot);
donner un coup de pied juste au bon endroit (popular: ‘to give a kick
just in the right part’); botter (popular: literally ‘to make’ or
‘supply anyone with boots’); détacher un coup de pinceau dans la
giberne (popular: coup de pinceau = ‘a kick,’ or ‘a blow with the
foot’; giberne = cartridge-box or, in slang, the breech); crever un œil
à quelqu’un (popular: ‘to stave in one’s eye.’ Cf., Cyclops); graisser
le train derrière (i.e., ‘to grease the hinder carriage.’ Cf., Eng.
Basting); détruire le faubourg à quelqu’un (popular: properly faubourg
= suburb or outskirt); enlever le schelingophone à quelqu’un (popular).
Bum Bags, subs. (popular).—Trowsers. [From bum, the posteriors, + bags
(q.v.).]
Bum Bailiff, also Bum Baily, subs. (old).—An opprobrious name for a
bailiff or sheriff’s officer. Frequently contracted into bum or bummy.
[Thought to be derived from bum (q.v.), an allusion to the proximity of
such gentry to debtors’ backs, + bailiff; there is no reason to
suppose, as suggested, that the term is a corruption of bound-bailiff.
The French have pousse cul, and it is curious that this term is also,
in common use, abbreviated to cul, answering to the English
contraction, bum.]
1602. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act iii., Sc. 4. Sir Jo. Go, Sir
Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the orchard like a
bum-baily.
1628. H. Shirley, Martyr’d Souldier, Act v. I was first a Varlet,
then a Bum-baily, now an under Jailor.
1761. Dr. Hawkesworth, Edgar and Emmeline, ii., 1. By the heavens!
she has the gripe of a bum-bailiff.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. ‘We are in right
opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, serjeant and
tipstaff, catch-poll and bum-bailey.’
1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xxxii. ‘You know the state we
were in all the summer: Gerald next to penniless, and going about
in fear of the bum-bailies.’
Bum Bass, subs. (old).—Explained by quot.
1809. S. Pegge, Anonymiana, p. 415 (ed. 1809). The humble-bee ought
rather, perhaps, to be called the bumble-bee as it is in some
parts, from the deepness of the note, just as the violoncello is
called by the vulgar a bum-bass.
Bumble, subs. (common).—A beadle. [This term originated in the name of
the beadle in Dickens’ Oliver Twist, although it may be noted that in
the seventeenth century bumble signified a confusion, a jumble. Hence
bumbler, an idle fellow, or blunderer. A French equivalent is
chasse-coquin (literally a beggar driver). Cf., Bumble-crew and
Bumbledom.]
1883. Punch, August 4, p. 51, col. 1.
A helpless ‘nuisance’ shunned by the Inspector,
Ignored by bumbles and by Boards of Works.
Bumble-Crew, subs. (popular).—A collective name for corporations,
vestries, and other official bodies. [From bumble (q.v.) + crew.]—See
Bumbledom.
Bumbledom, subs. (popular).—A term applied to the spirit of collective
petty officialism; red tape fussiness and pomposity. [From bumble
(q.v.) + dom.]
1856. Saturday Review, II., p. 12, col. 1. The collective Bumbledom
of Westminster. [M.]
1884. Daily News, Dec. 27, p. 6, col. 1. Our scheme is unfolded to
the chief officer—not the slightest trace of bumbledom about him—a
kind-hearted, genial, happy-faced individual.
Bumble Puppy, subs. (popular).—Family whist, i.e., ‘unscientific’
whist. Also applied, says Hotten, to a game played in public houses on
a large stone, placed in a slanting direction, on the lower end of
which holes are made, and numbered like the holes in a bagatelle-table.
The player rolls a stone ball, or marble, from the higher end, and
according to the number of the hole it falls into the game is counted.
It is undoubtedly the very ancient game of Troule-in-madame.
1886. Daily News, Dec. 25, p. 5, col. 2. Christmas cards, and
mince-pies, and another helping of turkey, and family whist, or
bumble puppy.
Bumbles, subs. (general).—Coverings for the eyes of horses that shy in
harness. Cf., Blinkers.
Bumbo, subs. (West Indian.)—1. The female pudenda; a term applied by
negroes. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
2. (old.)—Smollett, in a note to the first quotation as follows, says
bumbo was a liquor composed of ‘rum, sugar, water, and nutmeg.’ Grose
gives it as ‘brandy, water, and sugar’—the component parts seem to vary
according to taste.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxxiv. Who were making merry in
the ward-room, round a table well stored with bumbo and wine.
1756. Diary of a Sussex Tradesman, in Sussex Arch. Coll., IX., 188,
quoted in N. and Q., 7 S., i., 194. 1756, April 28. I went down to
Jones’, where we drank one bowl of punch and two muggs of bumboo,
and I came home again in liquor.
1882. Northumbrian Minstrelsy, etc., p. 113, quoted in N. and Q., 7
S., i., 195.
The pitmen and the keelmen trim,
They drink bumbo made of gin.
Bum-Brusher, subs. (schoolboys’).—A schoolmaster; also applied to an
usher. [From bum, the posteriors, + brusher, in allusion to the office
a schoolmaster is sometimes called upon to perform by way of
punishment.]
English Synonyms. Flaybottom; haberdasher of pronouns.
French Synonyms. Un marchand de soupe (marchand = merchant; soupe =
soup); un chien de cour (i.e., ‘a watch-dog’); un fouette-cul (a
literal translation of bum-brusher).
1704. T. Brown, wks. (1760) II., 86. [Dionysius] was forced to turn
bum-brusher.
1788. New London Magazine, p. 137. A successor was immediately
called from that great nursery of bum-brushers, Appleby School.
1832. Blackwood’s Mag., Oct., p. 426. To protract existence ... in
the shape of bum-brushers, and so forth, after the fashion of the
exalted emigrés of 1792?
1838. Comic Almanac, Dec. [School-master’s Letter signed] Barnabas
Bom-brush.
Bum Charter, subs. (thieves’).—Explained by quot.
1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. Bum-charter is the name given to bread
steeped in hot water by the first unfortunate inhabitants of the
English Bastile, where this miserable fare was their daily
breakfast, each man receiving with his scanty portion of bread a
quart of boiled water from the Cook’s Coppers.
Bumclink, subs. (provincial).—In the Midland counties the inferior beer
brewed for hay-makers and harvest labourers. [Derivation obvious.] For
synonyms, see Swipes.
Bum Curtain, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—1. An academical gown when worn
scant and short; especially applied to the short black gown worn till
1835 by members of Caius College. Cf., Bum-perisher.
1835. (Quoted in Whibley’s Three Centuries of Cambridge Wit
[1889].)
’Tis the College of Caius—’tis the land where the ‘Bum
Curtain’ lately was sported by each jolly chum,
But now black and blue are the gowns that they wear
Like the eye of a drunkard returned from a fair.
Bumf, subs. (schooboys’).—Paper. [An abbreviation of bum-fodder (q.v.),
an obvious allusion to toilet paper.]
Bumfhunt, subs. (Wellington College).—A paper-chase. [Derived from the
popular schoolboy name for paper, i.e., bumf (q.v.).]
Bum Fiddle, subs. (old).—The posteriors. For synonyms, see Blind cheeks
and Bum.
Bum Fidget, subs. (old).—A restless individual. [Obviously from bum,
the posterior, + fidget, i.e., one who cannot sit still.]
Bum Fodder, subs. (old).—1. Low class worthless literature; a term once
in literary use.—See sense 2.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I., xiii. Torche-culs, arsewisps, bum
fodders.
1753. Scots’ Magazine, April, p. 208, col. 1 (title). Bum fodder
for the ladies. [M.]