bulge

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bulge, also boulge,^[2] borrowed from Old French boulge, also bouge,^[3][4][5][6] or directly borrowed from Latin bulga (“leather bag, knapsack”).^[3][7] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from about 1185 for a bag or pouch.^[8] The Latin word is of Gaulish origin,^[3][9][5] as Festus already said, according to Klein;^[10] Barnhart and Klein compare Old Irish bolg (“bag”),^[6][10] bolgaim (“I swell”), Welsh bol (“belly”) and Breton bolc'h (“flax pod”),^[10] and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”).^[7][11] Through the diminutive bougette the same word gave budget,^[12][6] and Weekley thought it ultimately related to belly and bellows.^[13] The sense "bottom of a ship's hull" is of obscure origin and is connected with bilge,^[5][3] which Skeat calls a doublet of the word.^[14] The verb was formed from the noun in English;^[3][7][6] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate traces it instead to bolgen,^[15] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes the verb as probably an alteration of bilge.^[16] Johnson (1755) held that the verb was originally written bilge.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wallet or bag, especially one of leather; a water skin: about 1230, in Hali Meidenhad,^[3][2] which compares a pregnant woman's swelling belly to a water bulge.^[2] Barnhart dates it probably to about 1200.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The bag sense died out in the early 17th century,^[3][9] and about 1400 the word was also used for a hump.^[3] Its later senses of swelling and protruding presumably come from the shape of a full bag,^[4][12] as with belly and bellows, which also first meant "bag".^[12] At sea the word meant the bottom of a ship's hull from 1622,^[3][15] now generally replaced by bilge,^[3] and the verb first meant to stave in a ship's bottom (1570) or, of a ship, to strike and break its bilge (1581).^[3] The verb "to swell out" is recorded from 1677 in Barnhart;^[6] the OED dates it to 1679, used of a wall that leans out beyond its base;^[3] Etymonline dates the noun "a rounded protuberance" by the 1620s,^[7] the OED from 1741.^[3] American slang gave to have the bulge on, to have the advantage over (1841),^[3][18] and the 20th century added the bulging part of a military front (1927), a temporary rise in numbers, as of school-age children after a rise in the birth rate (1930), and the central part of a spiral galaxy (1943).^[3] The Battle of the Bulge was the German counteroffensive of 1944 in Belgium.^[19] In dialect, from Ireland to Somerset, the verb could also mean to batter something out of shape or dent it.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – a leather bag or pouch (obsolete by 1623).^[3][2]
• c. 1400 – a hump (obsolete).^[3]
• 1570 – verb, to stave in the bottom of a ship.^[3]
• 1622 – the bottom of a ship's hull.^[3][15]
• 1679 – verb, to swell out, especially of a wall.^[3] Barnhart dates the verb to 1677.^[6]
• 1741 – a rounded protuberance.^[3]
• 1841 – slang, the advantage, as in to have the bulge on.^[3]
• 1927 – a salient in a military front.^[3]
• 1930 – a temporary increase in numbers.^[3]
• 1943 – in astronomy, the central part of a spiral galaxy.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An outward curve or swelling on a surface: a bulge in the plaster where the pipe burst.^[19][11][16]
2. A sudden, usually temporary rise in number or volume, especially of population: a bulge in college applications.^[19][11][3]
3. A part of an army's front line that projects into enemy territory; a salient.^[19][3][16]
4. (nautical) The bilge of a ship.^[11][16][3]
5. (slang, originally US) The advantage or upper hand, in to have the bulge on.^[3][18]
6. (astronomy) The rounded central part of a spiral galaxy.^[3]

Verb

1. To swell or curve outward; to protrude: Her bag bulged with library books.^[11][19][16]
2. To cause to swell outward.^[11][16][3]
3. (archaic) To stave in the bottom of a ship.^[16][3]

Word family

• bulginess
• bulgy
• bulgingly
• outbulge

Related words

• budget
• bilge
• belly
• bellows

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ 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)