Forms: 5 bolk(e, 5–7 bulke, 6 bulcke, boulke, bowlke, (5–6, 9 Sc. bowk, see BOUK), 7 bulck, (boak), 6– bulk. [Of complicated etymology. The coincidence in meaning with ON. *bulki, Icel. búilki ‘heap, cargo of a ship’ (Vigf.), Da. bulk lump, clod (cf. mod.Icel. búlka-st to be bulky), suggests that the word, though not recorded before 15th c., may (in the senses ‘heap,’ ‘cargo’) be of Scandinavian origin. Within a few years of its first appearance, bulk occurs in the senses ‘belly, trunk of the body,’ due app. to confusion with BOUK, which word it has entirely superseded in literary English. (Cf. however, the Flemish bulck ‘thorax’ in Kilian.) The sense of ‘size’ (branch III) seems to have been evolved chiefly from the notion of ‘body,’ though it may be partly due to that of ‘heap’ or ‘cargo.’ The form boak, used by N. Fairfax 1674 indiscriminately with bulk in the sense of ‘magnitude,’ is apparently:—ME. bolk.]
I. Heap, cargo.
† 1. A heap; spec. the pile in which fish are laid for salting. Obs. exc. in phrase in bulk (see c).
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 43. Bolke, or hepe, cumulus.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 33 a. Pilchards are first salted & piled vp … vntil the superfluous moysture of the bloud & salt be soked from them: which accomplished, they rip the bulk & saue the residue of the salt.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 297. All the gold they found … should be put together in a bulk every night.
b. The cargo of a ship; a cargo as a whole; the whole lot (of a commodity). Phrase, To break bulk (see BREAK v. 43).
1575. in G. MacGregor, Hist. Glasgow (1881), 117. Breking bowk [of a cargo].
1626. Sir R. Boyle, in Lismore Papers (1886), II. 190. To keep them from breaking Bulck, and from selling their goods at an vndervallue.
1776. T. Paine, Com. Sense (1791), 58. The premiums to be in proportion to the loss of bulk to the merchants.
1884. R. Wheatley, in Harper’s Mag., June, 51/2. Until this is done the bulk of his cargo can not be broken.
Mod. The bulk is not equal to sample.
c. In bulk (of fish, etc.): lying loose in heaps, without package. To load (a ship) in bulk: to put the cargo in loose, when it consists of wheat, salt, or the like. To sell in bulk: to sell the cargo as it is in the hold; to sell in large quantities.
1727. De Foe, Eng. Tradesm., xx. (1841), I. 195. There was an old office erected in the city of London for searching & viewing all the goods which were sold in bulk.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), She is to be laden in-bulk; as with corn, salt, etc.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 53. This process is continued until the pile is several feet high…. The fish are now said to be ‘in bulk.’
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxiv. 619. Wine … sold either in bulk or by retail.
II. Senses belonging to BOUK.
† 2. = BOUK 1, 2. The belly; also the trunk, the body generally. Obs.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk. (1868), 145. Þen ley bulke, chyne, & sides, to-gedire.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helth (1541), 89. The boulke, called in latyn thorax, whiche conteyneth the brest, the sides, the stomake, and entrayles.
1570. Levins, Manip., 187, Y3 Bulke, thorax.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Venerie, 215. They kill and smoother them, or breake their bulckes with the force.
1594. Shaks., Lucr., 467. His hand … May feele her heart … Beating her bulke.
1632. Heywood, Iron Age, II. III. i. Wks. 1874, III. 392. My sword through Priams bulke shall flie.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 782. His Bulk too weighty for his Thighs is grown.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XI. 458. His arm and knee his sinking bulk sustain.
† b. A dead body, carcase. Obs.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Venerie, 175. Lette the huntesman take out of his wallet … small morsels, and put them into the Bulke of the hare.
1612. Heywood, Apol. Actors (1841), 20. See a Hector … trampling upon the bulkes of Kinges.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., No. 141 (1862), I. 336. Christ shall … mow down His enemies & lay bulks … on the green.
c. With some notion of 4: A body of great proportions, a huge frame (chiefly with adj. implying large size); also fig.
1587. Greene, Poems (1861), 285. Trees Whose stately bulks do fame th’ Arabian groves.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., IV. iv. 130. Though the great bulke Achilles be thy guard.
1624. Heywood, Captives, II. ii. in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. That grand maister Of mechall lusts, that bulke of brothelree.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XVII. 837. Behold the bulk of Ajax stands, And breaks the torrent of the rushing bands.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, ii. He had adorned and hid the coming bulk of death.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lxx. 11. Dark bulks that tumble half alive.
† 3. transf. a. The hull or hold of a ship; cf. Ger. bauch. b. = BOUK 2 b; ? the main body or nave of a church; cf. BODY 8 a. (Possibly the sense may be ‘crypt,’ cf. It. buca, Tommaseo’s Dict.). c. The part of a vehicle fitted to receive the load; cf. BODY 8 b, BUCK sb.5 3.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xxviii. 189. Thanne to þe bowk of þe schippe gan he gon.
1518. Will of Selwode (Somerset Ho.). Bowlke of the same churche.
1546. Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. App. A. 9. And so was it [the corpse] reverently setled in the bulk of the chariot.
1611. Cotgr., Vaisseau d’un navire, the bulke, bellie, or bodie of a ship.
1652. Needham, trans. Selden’s Mare Cl., 191. The rest of the bulk of their Vessels … was cover’d with Hides.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1269/3. Her Bulke is still kept entire.
III. Size: cf. 1 and 2 c.
4. Magnitude in three dimensions; volume.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., V. xv. 565. To make this book … eny ouer greet bolk.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., To Rdr. To another thing that was earlyer and Bulkier, and to somwhat still that was more betimes and more of Boak.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. i. 27. What is the certain bulk of the living being each man calls himself.
1795. Southey, Vis. Maid Orleans, 291. Below, the vault dilates Its ample bulk.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxv. ‘I hope it’s bowk eneugh to haud a’ the gear.’
1825. McCulloch, Pol. Econ., II. ii. 141. They [gold and silver] possess great value in small bulk.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 57. Sea water is denser or heavier, bulk for bulk, than fresh water.
b. esp. Great or considerable volume. Also fig.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 771. Rather thin and small than of Bulk.
1669. Penn, No Cross, XI. § 3, Wks. 1726, I. 332. ’Tis Vanity … for a man of Bulk and Character, to despise another of Less Size in the World.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, iii. 58. The bulk of his materials generally overwhelms him.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 457. The facility and assiduity with which he wrote are proved by the bulk … of his works.
5. A mass; the collective mass of any object. Often esp. a large mass.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 203. The last Use of redargution did not lie … against the whole bulk of Popery.
1658–9. Col. Briscoe, in Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 204. I was as much against confirming the laws in a bulk as any man.
1658. Ussher, Ann., VI. 153. Locking their ships close together, and making one bulke of them.
a. 1718. Penn, Tracts, in Wks. (1726), I. 815. Those who distinguish the Tree in the Bulk, cannot with the like Ease discern every Branch.
1842. Tennyson, Edw. Morris, 11. A Tudor-chimnied bulk Of mellow brickwork.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxx. (1856), 260. A similar bulk of lamp oil, denuded of the staves, stood [frozen] like a yellow sandstone roller for a gravel walk.
6. Greater part, or, in relation to number, the majority; the main body. (Sc. bouk; cf. BODY 9.)
[1662. Gerbier, Princ., 37. As for the main bulk of Palaces, its true some have a greatness in plainness.]
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 124, ¶ 3. Prints … calculated to diffuse good sense through the Bulk of a People.
1752. Hume, Pol. Disc., I. 4. The bulk of every state may be divided into husbandmen and manufacturers.
1837. Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., III. 279. The bulk of the Presbyterian clergy are as fierce as the slave-holders against the abolitionists.
1866. Bright, Sp. Irel., 30 Oct. (1876), 188. The bulk of his land has only been about half cultivated.
