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boom

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /buːm/[1]

boom1 deep sound; sudden prosperity

Etymology

The sound word is Middle English bommen, bummen, bomben, of imitative origin,[2][3][4] perhaps after bommen (“to hum, buzz”),[5][6] and German bummen is similar.[2] Compare bomb.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To drink with a gurgling sound, before 1376 in Piers Plowman;[2] to buzz, hum or drone, first of bees and wasps, in the mid-15th century,[3] about 1430 in Barnhart.[2]

Semantic evolution

To roar, rumble or reverberate is from the 15th century,[3] and the noun, a loud deep sound, from about 1500.[3][7] The boom of the bittern and of distant guns belong here.[5][8] To sail at great speed is from the 17th century in Hoad.[6] The commercial sense is American: a place or business booming into prosperity is by 1871,[3] the verb “to increase suddenly in value” from 1873 and the noun, a sudden rise in activity or prices, from 1879.[2] Hoad and the SOED take this as probably the sound word,[6][5] but Barnhart thinks it closer to boom “to rush under full sail” (probably 1617).[2] The baby boom, recorded from the late 19th century in America but mainly of the births after the Second World War, gave baby boomer and later boomer, now used disparagingly of that generation.[9] The boom box, a large portable stereo, is from 1978.[3][7]

Timeline

  • before 1376 – to drink with a gurgling sound.[2]
  • c. 1430 – to hum, buzz.[2]
  • c. 1500 – a loud deep sound.[3][7]
  • 1871 – to prosper suddenly.[3]
  • 1879 – a commercial boom.[2]
  • 1978 – boom box.[3][7]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To make a deep, loud, resonant sound, as thunder or guns do.
  2. To speak in a deep, loud voice.
  3. To grow or prosper rapidly: business boomed.

Noun

  1. A deep, resonant sound, as of an explosion or of breaking surf.
  2. A period of rapid economic growth or rising prices.
  3. The cry of the bittern.

boom2 pole, spar, barrier

Etymology

The spar is borrowed from Dutch boom (“tree, pole, beam”), from Middle Dutch,[2][6][4] first as Scots boun (1543);[2][3] it is cognate with Old High German boum and German Baum “tree” and with English beam, and was borrowed to supply meanings in which beam was not used.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A beam or pole: 1543 in Scots in Barnhart; the 1640s in Etymonline.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

A pole set up to mark a channel is from the late 16th century,[5] and a barrier of chain or floating spars across a river or harbour from about 1645.[7] A long spar run out from a ship to extend the foot of a sail is from 1662.[7][3] In the American lumber trade a line of floating timbers that holds logs in is from 1702.[7] A movable bar or arm that carries a microphone or camera is from 1931.[7][3] A crane's projecting arm and the spar of an aircraft's tail belong to the 20th century.[7][10]

Timeline

  • 1543 – a beam, in Scots.[2]
  • c. 1645 – a barrier across a river.[7]
  • 1662 – a ship's spar.[7]
  • 1702 – a timber boom in lumbering.[7]
  • 1931 – a microphone boom.[7][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A long spar that extends the foot of a sail.
  2. A movable arm that carries a microphone or camera, or the arm of a crane.
  3. A barrier of chains or floating timbers across a river or harbour.
  • boomer
  • bomb
  • beam
  • baby boom

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin