bouncer

Etymology

It is formed from English bounce + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The verb bounce originally meant "to thump, hit";^[5] the OED compares, for the sense "a large specimen", bouncing and the similar use of thumper and thumping.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something or someone large or heavy of its kind, in early use especially a large woman: 1581, in Thimelthorpe's Short Inventory of Certain Idle Inventions.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1697 and Etymonline to 1762.^[6][5] Green's slang dictionary quotes Nashe in 1596 of a book growing "such a bouncer".^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century a bouncer was a braggart or swaggerer (about 1626 to 1892), and also a lie, especially a blatant one (1659), the sense in which Johnson (1755) defined it as "a boaster; a bully; an empty threatener".^[2][8] From 1764 to 1834 it was a liar, and in mid-19th-century criminal slang a confidence trickster.^[2] The literal sense, a person or thing that bounces, is recorded only from 1850, followed by a bouncing ball in baseball (1870) and, in cricket, a fast short ball that rises high (1913).^[2][9] The best-known sense, a person employed at a bar or club to keep out or throw out troublemakers, began as American colloquial use:^[2][5] the OED's first record is from 1874, in Chicago,^[2] while Etymonline dates it to 1865.^[5] An 1883 London newspaper explained it as the English chucker-out.^[5] In 20th-century American slang a bouncer was also a bad cheque, one that "bounces".^[7][9] In the dialects of Westmorland, Yorkshire and the Midlands, the word meant anything very large of its kind,^[10] and since 1905 it has also been a device in which a baby can bounce.^[2]

Timeline

• 1581 – a large specimen of its kind.^[2]
• c. 1626 – a braggart, a swaggerer (obsolete by 1892).^[2]
• 1659 – a blatant lie.^[2]
• 1850 – a person or thing that bounces.^[2]
• 1874 – a person who ejects troublemakers from a bar.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1865.^[2][5]
• 1905 – a baby bouncer.^[2]
• 1913 – in cricket, a short ball that rises high.^[2]
• 1927 – a bad cheque.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person employed at a nightclub, bar or similar place to keep out unwanted people and remove troublemakers: The bouncer checked their ages at the door.^[9][6][2]
2. In cricket, a fast short ball that rises high after pitching; a bumper.^[9][2][3]
3. In baseball, a batted ball that bounces before it is fielded.^[6][2]
4. A person or thing that bounces.^[9][2]
5. (slang) A cheque that is returned unpaid.^[9][7]
6. (archaic) Something large of its kind.^[6][2][3]
7. (archaic) A boaster or bully; also a blatant lie.^[6][3][8]

Related words

• bounce

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)