Etymograph

English

bum

Bum comes from Middle English bom.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bom1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 2010bum1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English bum
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2010, Jill Mansell: “Maxine tried hers. ‘Oh bum,’ she said crossly. ‘The…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bomWiktionary, English bum
  2. Englishearliest quotation 2010bumWiktionary, English bum. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2010, Jill Mansell: “Maxine tried hers. ‘Oh bum,’ she said crossly. ‘The…”

The story

Attested since the 1300s, as Middle English bom (found in John Trevisa's 1387 Translation of the 'Polychronicon' of Ranulph Higden, "his bom is oute"), of uncertain origin.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Sometimes suggested to be a shortening of botme, botom, bottum (‘bottom’), but this is contradicted by the fact that bottom is not attested in reference to the buttocks until the late 1700s. Suggested by some old and modern references to be onomatopoeic. The anal sex senses (noun and verb), as well as the adjective (esp. the first) sense, are expletive-avoiding.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Middle English bom

Another origin of bum

  1. Germanc. 1650–presentbummeln‘to loaf’
  2. Germanc. 1650–presentBummler‘loafer’
  3. Englishtodaybum

Today it means

noun The buttocks.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “bum”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Middle English bom / bum

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