Bottom

Forms: 1 botm, 3–4 boþem, -om, -um, botham, -em, -um, 5 botym, botme, 5–7 botome, bottom(e, botoume, 6–7 bothom(e, 9 dial. botton, 6– bottom; north, bodome, -dom, -dum, mod.Sc. boddem. [OE. botm str. masc., representing WGer. *boþm-, whence OS. bodom, OHG. bodam, MHG., Du. bodem, mod.G. boden; the ON. botn appears to point to *boþno- as the Teut. form; but both may have been OTeut.: cf. Gr. πυθμήν, also Skr. budhná, L. fundus (for *fud-nus):—Aryan *bhudhno-.

  The phonology of the Teut. forms is not yet clearly explained; the ME. variants boþom boddom also present difficulties.]

  I.  The lowest surface or part of anything.

  1.  The lowest part of anything, considered as a material thing; the lower or under surface, that surface of a thing on which it stands or rests; the base. Applied spec. to the keel of a ship (cf. 7), the circular end of a cask, etc. Proverb, ‘Every tub (vat) must stand on its own bottom.’

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Satan, 721 (Gr.). Þa he on botme [þære helle] stod.

c. 1050.  Ags. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 181. Cimba uel carina, scipesbotm.

1382.  Wyclif, Wisd. v. 10. A step is not to finde, ne a path of his [a ship’s] botme in the flodis.

c. 1425.  Seven Sag. (P.), 809. The credyl bothume turnyd on hyghe.

c. 1460–70.  Bk. Quintessence, 5. Þat þe necke of þe glas be turned dounward, and þe botum be turned vpward.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxviii. 242. A pit without a bottome.

1727.  Swift, Gulliver, III. i. 180. It appeared to be a firm substance, the bottom flat, smooth and shining.

1768.  Ross, To the Begging, 134–5 (Jam.).

1769.  Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 289. Boil your artichoke bottoms in hard water.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. (1872), III. 38/2. Barrels with the bottoms knocked out served the purpose of chimneys.

Mod.  A drawer with a false bottom.

  b.  The sitting part of a man, the posteriors, the seat. (Colloq.) Also, the ‘seat’ of a chair.

1794–6.  E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), III. 253. So as to have his head and shoulders much lower than his bottom.

1835.  J. Wilson, Noctes Ambr., xxxix. (1864), IV. 79. The Dunghill cock … hides his head in a hole … unashamed of the exposure of his enormous bottom.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. IV. i. 185. Patriot women take their hazel wands, and fustigate … broad bottom of priests.

1885.  Leisure Ho., Jan., 47/1. Women and children will be found caning or rushing the ‘bottoms.’

  2.  The ground or bed under the water of a lake, sea or river. Hence to go to the bottom: to sink, founder; to be wrecked.

a. 1000.  Beowulf, 3016. Þa heo to botme com.

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., C. 144. Þe wawes … Durst nowhere for roȝ arest at þe bothem.

c. 1400.  Maundev., xxx. 300. Men may see the botme of the See.

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., 90. Now … to the botham is it sonken.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 21. Soom synck too bottoms, sulcking thee surges asunder.

1635.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., III. ix. 149. So great an abundance of water, that they can neither find the bottome or bounds thereof.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 618. The Sun … darting to the bottom, bak’d the Mud.

1730.  A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphit., 376. The Bottom is very good anchoring Ground.

1812.  J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, II. 22. Down to the bottom must she go With all who wake or sleep.

1821.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., II. ii. 73. The oozy bottom of clear lakes and pools.

  b.  To touch bottom: to reach the lowest point. To have no bottom: to be unfathomable, inexhaustible, etc. Often fig.

1682.  Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., 63. Forgetting … the vicissitude of good and evil, they apprehend no bottom in felicity.

1886.  Pall Mall Gaz., 22 April, 11/2. I do not believe we have touched bottom; I believe the reduction will go on.

  † 3.  A deep place, a depth, either in the sea or land; an abyss. Obs.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 361 (Gr.). He hæfð us befylled fyres to botme.

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., B. 1030. He bode in þat boþem [the Dead Sea] broþely a monyth.

1611.  Bible, Wisd., xvii. 14. The same sleepe … came vpon them out of the bottomes of ineuitable hell.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 289. So low Down sunk a hollow bottom … Capacious bed of Waters.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 557. In the Carpathian Bottom makes abode The Shepherd of the Seas.

1703.  Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1721), Add. 4. A great … Rock, separated by a great gulph or natural bottom, from the land.

1759.  Borlase, in Phil. Trans., L. 504. They called to their companions above to be drawn up from the bottoms.

  4.  a. The bed or basin of a river. b. Low-lying land, a valley, a dell; an alluvial hollow.

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., B. 383. Vch boþom watz brurd-ful to þe bonkez eggez.

1481.  Ripon Ch. Acts, 347. Head-rack Bothome.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VII. Prol. 57. Bank, bra, and boddum blanschit wolx and bair.

1576.  Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 239. They [streams] all passe in one bottome to Wie and to Canterbury.

1613.  W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. i. (1772), II. 2. Past gloomy bottomes and high-waving woods.

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Bergerac’s Comic. Hist., I. 177. Do you perceive, said he to me, what bottom we are going down into?

1732.  Lediard, Sethos, II. IX. 294. This bottom, or inclosure … was about two hundred paces broad.

1803.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), III. 504. There are on the borders of the rivers some rich bottoms, formed by the mud brought from the upper country.

  5.  The lowest part of anything, considered as a place or position in space; the lowest point or locality, the ‘foot.’ Said both of vertical direction, and of the lowest point, on a slope.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1699. In þe boþem [of the ark] sal be na stall For al þeir filth sal þedir fall.

c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2143. Til þou be broȝt to þe boþem of þe brem valay.

1526.  Tindale, Matt. xxvii. 51. The vayle of the temple dyd rent in twayne from the toppe to the bottome [1382 Wyclif, fro the heiȝest til doun; 1388 to the lowest].

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., III. v. 13. If the bottome were as deepe as hell, I shold down.

1664.  Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 204. Cutting the … Roots a little, especially at bottom.

1853.  Lytton, My Novel, III. xxiv. Two cherry trees, standing at the bottom of the Park.

1863.  Kingsley, Water-bab., 14. At the bottom of a hill they came to a spring.

1873.  Morley, Rousseau, I. 296. Rousseau was alone at the bottom of his garden.

  b.  fig. in phr. From (to) the bottom of the heart, etc.

1549.  Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun. Serv. Rubr., If one of the parties … be content to forgive from the bottom of his heart all that the other hath trespassed against him.

1557.  North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr. (1619), 146/2. I loue thee from the bottome of my stomacke.

1585.  Abp. Sandys, Serm. (1841), 334. From the bottom of my heart I confess with St. Paul, Minimus sum.

1802.  Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. x. 83. He wished, from the bottom of his heart, that he had a thousand.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 169. Worthless men … to the very bottom of whose hearts he saw.

  c.  The foot of a page; the last place in a list or class; the lower end of a table, in point of dignity or precedence.

1658.  Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 916. The rest he placed in the bottom of the wax, that is, in the last part of his will.

1863.  A. J. Horwood, Yearbks. 30 & 31 Edw. I., Pref. 32. The case at the bottom of p. 141 acknowledges the rule.

1863.  C. D. Yonge, Hist. Brit. Navy, I. xi 551 (L.). Justice was satisfied by his being placed at the bottom of the list of post-captains.

1884.  Mrs. Craik, G. Helstone, I. 246.The mere sight of Mr. Beresford’s genial face at the bottom of his table did more to give zest to the viands than an appetizing sauce.

  6.  transf. The deepest or most remote part of a recess, bay, or the like; the farthest point, or inmost part.

1603.  R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw., 117. Venice … is a city seated at the bottome of the Adriatique sea.

1634.  W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., I. i. At the bottome [of Massachusetts Bay] … are situated most of the English plantations.

a. 1674.  Milton, Hist. Mosc., i. Wks. (1851), 476. The way thither is through the western bottom of Saint Nicholas Bay.

1791.  Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 20. Mahomet hid in the Bottom of the sands of Arabia.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. viii. 82. Almost at the bottom of this indentation.

  b.  fig.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, viii. 100. Trogus Pompeius beginneth his Historie at the bottome of all antiquitie.

  7.  Bottom (of a ship): generally, as in 1 (where see quots.); spec. ‘the part of the hull of a ship which is below the wales’ (Adm. Smyth); also, the hull as a whole; hence, A ship, boat, or other vessel.

1522.  Wolsey, in Fiddes, Life (1726), 64. To bring their wines upon strangers bottoms.

1540.  Act 32 Hen. VIII., xiv. Laden … in any shyppe botome or vessell of this realme or England.

1600.  Holland, Livy, XXXIII. xxxvii. 845. They … passed over the Po in small bothomes and punts.

1665.  Lond. Gaz., No. 11/4. They were bound for Bordeaux with several others, all Dutch Bottoms.

1697.  Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 143. When they come to Panama, [they] dispose of the Goods and Bottom together.

1770.  Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 138/2. Amintas … and Sosicles … who sailed in one bottom, bore down upon him.

1817.  Byron, Beppo, xcvii. He transferr’d his lading … to another bottom.

1883.  American, VII. 162. Goods imported in foreign bottoms.

  b.  fig.

1636.  Featly, Clavis Myst., vii. 85. All private mens estates are ventered in the bottome of the Common-wealth.

1697.  Establ. Test., 2. I do not pretend … to meddle with the Needle and Compass of the Publique Bottom.

1799.  J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 442. In no bottom can it [wealth] be more safe than in land.

1824.  Scott, St. Ronan’s, x. I wish Clara’s venture had not been in such a bottom.

  8.  † a. The dregs, sediment of liquors; the last portion of the wine in a cask (obs.). b. In Copper-smelting (see quot.).

1660.  Howell, Dict., Bottom, or the settling of liquor at the bottom.

1703.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3963/3. The White Wines … at 40l. per Tun, the White Bottoms at 10l.

1870.  Eng. Mech., 18 Feb., 547/3. Known as black copper or ‘bottoms.’

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., Bottoms, in copper-smelting, the impure metallic copper … which separates from the matt, and is found below it.

  9.  Bottom of a wig: the portion hanging down over the shoulder. Full bottom: short for ‘full-bottomed wig.’

1851.  Thackeray, Eng. Hum., II. 89. The fathers of theology did not think it decent to appear except in a full bottom.

  II.  That which underlies or supports a thing.

  † 10.  That upon which anything is built or rests; the foundation. Obs.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 45. Botme, or fundament, basis.

1647.  H. More, Song of Soul, II. App. civ. All the stately works and monuments Built on this bottome.

1660.  Sharrock, Vegetables, 39. That canon will certainly hold longer which is best built in the bottome.

1674.  Allen, Danger Enthus., 5. Several Orders among the Papists have been built upon the same Bottom.

  † b.  The ground under a plant; the soil in which it grows. Obs.

a. 1620.  J. Dyke, Worthy Commun. (1640), To Rdr. A plant that growes upon its own bottom.

1649.  Blith, Eng. Improv. Impr., To Husb. No less than may … yield good bottome and rooting to the corn.

  11.  fig. A foundation, basis, footing.

a. 1620.  J. Dyke, Worthy Commun. (1640), 194. Hee comes off from all bottom he hath in himselfe and in nature.

1675.  Brooks, Gold. Key, Wks. 1867, V. 155. This glorious name Shaddai, was a noble bottom for Abraham to act his faith upon.

1697.  Snake in Grass (ed. 2), p. xv. This was the Bottom upon which the Quakers first set up.

1718.  Penn, Life, in Wks. 1726, I. 136. If we could not all meet upon a Religious Bottom, at least we might upon a Civil One.

1788.  Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. xxxvi. 262. Authority established on the same bottom with the privileges of the people.

  b.  Phrase. To stand on one’s own bottom: to act for oneself, be independent.

1606.  Holland, Sueton., 97. Hee had used also before, to stand upon his owne bothom.

a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Content., 45. Man, though he … stand upon his own bottome, yet [is] he not a little vvrought upon by examples.

1680.  Morden, Geog. Rect. (1685), 106. Everyone endeavours to stand on their own bottom.

1788.  Reid, Aristotle’s Log., vi. § 1. 129. When reason acquires such strength as to stand on its own bottom.

  12.  The fundamental character, essence, reality. Phrases. To search, etc., to the bottom: to examine thoroughly, to find out the real character of. At (the) bottom: in reality, as distinguished from superficial appearances. To be at the bottom of: to underlie, to be the real author or source of.

1577.  Harrison, England, II. i. (1877), 12. When the pope understood the botome of the matter.

1594.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 391. There is nothing in man which … God … searcheth not vnto the bottome.

1600.  Tourneur, Transf. Metamorph., lviii. Doth demonstrate presently The bottome of his mind effectually.

1651.  Proc. Parliament, No. 94. 1446. The examination of that business to the bottom.

1683.  Apol. for Prot. France, vi. 88. The Clergy in the bottom judges that the Pope has Right to lay an Ecclesiastical Censure upon the Kingdom of France.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 43, ¶ 5. We are by no means yet sure, that some People are not at the Bottom on’t.

1720.  Ozell, trans. Vertot’s Rom. Rep., III. XIV. 325. Antony, at the Bottom, very indifferent about this Revenge, pretended to be in earnest.

1748.  Anson, Voy., III. x. (ed. 4), 544. If this matter was examined to the bottom.

1773.  Monboddo, Language (1774), I. I. iv. 42. In order to get at the bottom of this question.

1809–10.  Coleridge, Friend (1865), 75. With whomsoever we play the deceiver and flatterer, him at the bottom we despise.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 387. The Jesuits were at the bottom of the scheme.

1866.  Argyll, Reign Law, vi. (1871), 320. That which is really at the bottom of all this ambiguity of language.

1873.  Morley, Rousseau, II. 171. It is bad, because it is at bottom, a superstition.

  † 13.  A pecuniary ‘foundation’ or ‘basis’ for commercial enterprise; capital, resources; hence, financial stability, commercial standing. Obs.

1662.  Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 451. Beginning on a good bottom left him by his father.

1787.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 206. I know of no mercantile house in France of surer bottom.

  14.  Physical resources, ‘staying power,’ power of endurance; said esp. of pugilists, wrestlers, race-horses, etc.

1774.  Goldsm., Anim. Nat., II. 106. Though the Savages held out and, as the phrase is, had better bottoms, yet for a spurt the Englishmen were more nimble and speedy.

1790.  Bewick, Quadr., Race Horse (1800), 7. What is called in the language of the turf, bottom.

1822.  Byron, Juan, VIII. cx. [He] died all game and bottom.

1835.  Penny Cycl., III. 421/2. They … have their manes and tails cropped … under the supposition that it adds to their strength and bottom.

1862.  R. Patterson, Ess. Hist. & Art, 180. For solidity, bottom, and a courage that never wavers, they [British troops] are incomparable.

  † 15.  A clew or nucleus on which to wind thread; also a skein or ball of thread. Also fig. Obs.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 45. Botme of threde.

1490.  Caxton, Eneydos, xxxi. 120. He must take wyth hym a botom of threde.

1555.  Eden, Decades W. Ind., I. v. (Arb.), 85. Of gossampine cotton ready spunne foure great bottomes.

1611.  Cotgr., Fondrillon, a bottom to wind silke, thread or yarne on.

1614.  Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 367. He received from her [Ariadne] a bottome of thred.

c. 1645.  Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 267. I will twist up what I know upon as narrow a bottom as may be shut up within the compass of this letter.

1698.  S. Clark, Script. Just., 112. It’s high Time now to wind up my Bottoms.

1731.  Sir E. Peyton, Div. Catastr. Ho. Stuarts, 64. I have ravelled out the Pieces to wind up this Bottom.

1754.  Bp. Warburton, Lett. fr. Late Prelate (1809), 168. So you see I am winding up my bottoms.

  † b.  The cocoon of a silkworm. Obs.

1609.  Mulb. Trees, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), III. 86. Upon the branches … the wormes will fasten themselues, and make their bottomes.

1655.  Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., xiii. § 3 (1669), 42/2. The Silk-worm … works her self out of her bottom.

1665.  Phil. Trans., I. 88. The manner of winding their Silk from their Bottoms.

  † 16.  ? The lap. Obs.

1725.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., II. s.v. Lithotomy, The Operator lays the sick Person upon a soft pillow, in the Bottom or Lap of some Strong Man.

  III.  Attrib. and Comb.

  17.  simple attrib. or adj. Of or pertaining to the bottom; lowest, basal, fundamental; last. (Hence superlative BOTTOM-MOST.)

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 8 b. The presumptuous boldnesse … is throwen downe euen to the bottome point of the earth.

1677.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 221. The bottom width of the Hollow.

1685.  W. Adams, Dedham Pulpit (1840), 97. This is the bottom cause.

1884.  Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 12 July. I can’t help sympathizing with the bottom dog [in a fight].

1885.  Pall Mall Gaz., 2 Dec., 3/1. The bottom political fact just now.

1885.  Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 20 Dec., Advt. All kinds of Horse Furnishings at Bottom Prices.

  18.  General comb., chiefly attrib., in senses a. At the bottom, forming the bottom, as bottom-rock, -water; b. That remains on the bottom (of sea, river, etc.); done at or near the bottom, as bottom-fish, -fishing, -living, -trailing; c. That belongs to or forms the bottom of anything, as bottom-board, -timber; d. fig. Fundamental, as † bottom-ground; e. Of or pertaining to low-lying ground, as bottom-glade, -grass, -land.

1881.  C. A. Edwards, Organs, 42. The *bottom-board is made of thick pine.

1847.  Ansted, Anc. World, vi. 106. *Bottom-fish, living on offal and on the invertebrated groups.

1830.  Howitt, Seasons, March, 59. His sport is … confined to *bottom-fishing.

1634.  Milton, Comus, 532. Hard by i’ the hilly crofts That brow this *bottom-glade.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 236. Within this limit is relief enough; Sweet *bottom-grass, and high delightful plain.

a. 1679.  T. Goodwin, Wks., 1865, X. 431. The reason or *bottom-ground of all that wickedness.

1881.  Jrnl. Microsc. Soc., Jan., 68. The porcellanous Foraminifera … are known to be exclusively *bottom-living species.

1882.  H. Lansdell, Through Siberia, I. 220. We had a splendid view of the noble Yenesei at sunset, of its verdant *bottom-lands on either side.

1864.  Dana, Text-Bk. Geol. (1874), 45. In Great Britain, the whole thickness above the unfossiliferous *bottom-rocks is about 100,000 feet.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxvi. 266. The ice had strained her *bottom-timbers.

1822.  Edin. Rev., 300. They gave us our elementary lesson of *bottom-trailing.

1878.  Huxley, Physiogr., 152. The surface freezes while the *bottom-water remains several degrees warmer.

  19.  Special comb., as bottom-cargo, the cargo carried in the hold; bottom-dish, that placed at the lower end of the table; bottom-heat, heat supplied to plants through the soil; bottom-ice, ice that forms on the bottom of a river or sea; bottom-lift (see quot.); bottom-moraine, débris dropped from icebergs on the bottom of the sea; bottom-up, -upwards adv., in an inverted position, upside-down; † bottomward, the part near the bottom; bottom-wigged a., wearing a wig with full bottom; bottom-wind: see quot.

1840.  Marryat, Poor Jack, xxiii. Our *bottom cargo consisted of … crockery.

1796.  Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, v. 79. A porcupine of a breast of veal … is a grand *bottom-dish.

1882.  Garden, 14 Jan., 26/3. The cuttings … are planted out in frames in a gentle *bottom-heat.

1882.  Geikie, Geol., II. II. § 6. 111. Water-ice is formed … by the freezing of the layer of water lying on the bottom of rivers, or the sea (*bottom-ice, ground-ice, anchor-ice).

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Bottom-lift, the deepest lift of a mining-pump, or the lowest pump.

1882.  Nature, XXV. 470/1. The Devonian rocks … are covered with a thick sheet of typical *bottom-moraine.

1858.  Merc. Mar. Mag., V. 67. A ship *bottom-up … might easily be taken for a ‘danger.’

1694.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3006/4. More towards the middle to the *bottomward.

1884.  Harper’s Mag., Oct., 801/2. Our heavy *bottom-wigged monarchy outlived that flashing invader.

1849.  G. Soame, New Curios. Lit., I. 151. The *Bottom-Wind has its name from being supposed … to arise from the bottom of those lakes which are situated amongst mountains.