[Belongs to BUMP v.1 Onomatopœic: the vb. and sb. of action being probably coeval. App. the order was bump v. to knock, and bump sb. a knock; hence as sb. a swelling protuberance caused by a blow, and as vb. to swell or rise in a protuberance; but the historical record is not very complete. Cf. BOUNCE, THUMP, etc. Also as a parallel instance of an onomatopœia combining the two senses ‘sudden blow’ and ‘swelling’ cf. BUNCH.]
I. 1. A blow somewhat heavy, but rather dull in sound; a sudden collision, more or less violent.
1611. Cotgr., Adot, a blow, bumpe, or thumpe.
1768–78. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 149. An unlucky bump upon the head [might have] rendered him stupid.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. 10. When the pump descends, there is heard a plunge, a heavy sigh, and a loud bump.
1882. Lett., in Royal Acad. Catal. (1883), 95. It went into the ditch with a bump.
2. Boating. The impact of the stem of a boat against the stern or side of another boat in front of it: in boat-racing at the English Universities, the making of a ‘bump’ is the technical proof of one boat’s overtaking and beating another.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., I. xiv. 282. A bump now and no mistake; the bow of the St. Ambrose boat jams the oar of the Oriel stroke.
1884. Sat. Rev., College Life, 12 July, 47/1. An unexpected bump in May.
II. Swelling.
3. A protuberance such as is caused by a blow or collision; a swelling, an irregular prominence.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iii. 53. It had upon it brow, a bumpe as big as a young Cockrels stone; a perilous knock.
1611. Cotgr., Angonailles, botches, (pockie) bumps or sores. Ibid., Bigne, a bumpe, knob, rising, or swelling after a knocke.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, XVI. 14 (J.).
| Not tho his Teeth are beaten out, his Eyes | |
| Hang by a String, in Bumps his Fore-head rise. |
1825–7. Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 1016. I sat upon a small knoll, surrounded by curves and bumps.
4. transf. One of the prominences on the cranium associated by phrenologists with special mental faculties and propensities; sometimes used for the faculties, etc., themselves. (colloq.)
1815. Edin. Rev., XXV. 251. The aforesaid bumps on the head are … signs of peculiar energy, in some of the special faculties.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., iv. 165. She felt his bumps, and cast his nativity.
Mod. I never knew anyone so deficient in the bump of locality.
III. Comb., as bump-stick, a tool used by shoemakers for smoothing soles (= Sleek-stick); bump-supper, a supper given to celebrate the making of a ‘bump’ by a college boat (see 2).
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Box, It [Boxwood] makes also … Bump-Sticks and Dressers for Shoemakers.
