Etymologically
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bulge

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbʌldʒ/[1]
  • US: /ˈbʌldʒ/, /ˈbʊldʒ/[1]

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

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)