Also 5 bunge, 6 boung(e. [Cf. MDu. bonghe in same sense, said by Franck to be a regular dial. form for *bonde, whence the recorded MDu. bonne, mod.Du. bom.
The Du. word corresponds to MHG. punt, punte; the synonymous F. bonde is supposed to be adopted from some Teut. lang. It has been conjectured that the source of all these words is the L. puncta in the sense of ‘hole,’ and that the synonymous OHG., MHG. spunt, mod.G. spund, Du. spon are originally the same word.]
1. A stopper; spec. a large cork stopper for the ‘mouth’ of a cask, i.e., the hole in the bulge by which it is filled.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 55. Bunge of a wesselle, as a tonne, barelle, botelle, or other lyke.
1530. Palsgr., 202/1. Bung of a tonne or pype.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., iv. § 7 (1681), 54. Put into a vessel, and stopt with a Bung and Rag.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 329. Take out the bung.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 279.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 64. They are stowed bung up.
2. transf. The ‘mouth’ of a cask; the bung-hole. (Still dial.)
1571. Digges, Pantom., III. xiii. S i b. Take youre rodde … and let it descende perpendicularly downe thorough the bung.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., VIII. 274. Stopping the bung of the Vessel.
1775. Phil. Trans., LXV. 103. A small cask of rum, with a large bung.
3. Naut. A nickname for the master’s assistant who superintends the serving of the grog. [Cf. bung-starter.]
1863. Cornh. Mag., Feb. Life Man-of-War, 183. From time immemorial these gentlemen have had to stand at the grog-butt, and see the grog served out—an important duty, the discharge of which has invested them, such is the playfulness of naval humour, with the title of Bungs.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 May, 1/1. The second master and master’s assistant … are, or used to be, playfully known as ‘bungs’ in the service.
4. [Perh. not the same word.] a. A bundle of hemp-stalks. b. Pottery: A pile of ‘seggars’ or clay cases in which fine stoneware is baked.
1704. Worlidge, Dict. Rust. et Urb., s.v. Watering, To lay the Bungs (which are bundles of Stalks) in Water.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 57. Each of these piles [of seggars] as it stands, is called a bung.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 614. The ‘setters’ for china plates … are ‘reared’ in the oven in ‘bungs.’
† 5. = BUM sb.1 Obs. rare.
1691. [De Foe], New Disc. Old Intreague, xxviii. 5. 31.
| Nay, if Bow Bells for Whiggish Joys are rung, | |
| The jangling Mettal must salute his Bung. |
6. Comb., as bung-cloth; bung-hole, the hole in a cask, which is closed with the bung; † transf. the anus (obs.); bung-knife, ? a knife for cutting bungs; bung-starter, ‘a stave shaped like a bat, which, applied to either side of the bung, causes it to start out; also a soubriquet for the captain of the hold; also a name given to the master’s assistant serving his apprenticeship for hold duties’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.); bung-stave, that stave of a cask in which is the bung-hole.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 146. Bungs and *bung cloths.
1571. Digges, Pantom., III. xii. S b. The diagonall … lynes from the *bung holes to the … lowest parte of either base.
1611. Cotgr., Cul de cheval, a small and ouglie fish, or excrescence of the Sea, resembling a mans bung-hole, and called the red Nettle [= Sea Anemone].
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6), II. xii. 255. A cask with a very large bunghole.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier (1871), 40. By his side a skein like a brewers *boung-knife.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 64. The *bung stave is known by the rivets of the hoops being on that stave.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 144. Its bung-stave is uppermost.
