bumper

Etymology

It is formed from English bump + -er.^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster explains the old sense "full glass" from bump in an obsolete sense "to bulge, swell out",^[4][5] and the OED compares the earlier adjective bumping, also used of large objects and of drinking glasses.^[2] Etymonline thinks of the notion of bumping as "large", or of a related sense "booming",^[6] and Skeat of a "bumping" or full glass, compare thumping, great.^[7] The American Heritage Dictionary is less sure, deriving it only perhaps from bump,^[8] and the verb bump itself is probably imitative.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or thing that bumps: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary, though the OED notes that this sense is rare before the 19th century.^[2] The glass filled to the brim is recorded from about 1670,^[2][6] and Merriam-Webster dates it to 1677.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first common sense was a glass of wine or other drink filled to the brim, especially to drink a toast,^[2][3] which Johnson (1755) defined as a cup filled until the liquor swells over the brim.^[9] From 1691 to the 19th century one could also bumper, drink bumpers, or toast someone in one.^[2][3] The idea of fullness gave the colloquial sense "anything unusually large, abundant or excellent" (1759), compare whopper,^[2][6] and in theatre slang a full house (1789–1886).^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang has the attributive use in "a bumper meet" in 1858,^[10] and Merriam-Webster dates the adjective, as in bumper crop, to 1885.^[4] The agent-noun sense came back in the 19th century in technical uses: a buffer on a railway vehicle, first in North America (1838),^[2][6] a shock-absorbing fitting on a ship or vehicle (1867),^[2] and, of motor cars, by 1901 in the phrase bumper to bumper, used of real traffic jams by 1908.^[6] In cricket a bumper is a short-pitched ball that rises sharply (1855),^[2][5] in Irish English it was an amateur rider in a race (1900), and later a flat race for novice jumpers (1946),^[2] and in broadcasting it is a short announcement before a commercial break (1979).^[2] In Yorkshire and Lancashire dialect anything unusually large was a bumper.^[11]

Timeline

• 1611 – a person or thing that bumps, in Cotgrave.^[2]
• c. 1670 – a glass filled to the brim, especially for a toast.^[2][6]
• 1691 – verb, to drink a bumper (obsolete by 1879).^[2]
• 1759 – anything unusually large, abundant or excellent.^[2][6]
• 1789 – theatre slang, a full house (until 1886).^[2]
• 1838 – a buffer on a railway vehicle, in North America.^[2]
• 1855 – in cricket, a short-pitched ball that rises sharply.^[2]
• 1867 – a shock-absorbing fitting on a ship or vehicle.^[2]
• 1885 – adjective, unusually large, as in bumper crop.^[4]
• 1901 – bumper to bumper, of motor cars.^[6]
• 1946 – a flat race for novice horses, at first in Irish English.^[2]
• 1979 – in broadcasting, a short announcement before a break.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bar of metal or rubber fixed to the front or back of a motor vehicle to absorb the impact of a collision.^[8][5][2]
2. Any device that absorbs shocks or prevents contact, such as a buffer at the end of a railway line.^[8][2]
3. (cricket) A fast, short-pitched ball that rises sharply; a bouncer.^[5][2]
4. A person or machine that bumps.^[5][4][2]
5. (horse racing) A flat race run under National Hunt rules to give young horses experience before jumping.^[2]
6. A glass filled to the brim, especially for drinking a toast.^[4][2][9]
7. Something unusually large of its kind.^[4][2]

Adjective

1. Unusually large or abundant: a bumper harvest of apples.^[4][5][3]
2. Very good or successful: The shop had a bumper week before the holiday.^[4]

Verb

1. (archaic) To drink a bumper, or to toast someone with one; to fill a glass to the brim.^[3][4][2]

Word family

• bumper-to-bumper
• bumper car
• bumper jack
• bumper pool
• bumper sticker

Related words

• bump
• bumping

Usage notes

A popular etymology, noted by Green's Dictionary of Slang, explained the full glass as an English form of a supposed French toast au bon père, "to the good father", that is, the pope;^[10] Green's itself derives it from the bumping of glasses in a toast or from bumping, huge.^[10] In Australian and New Zealand slang a bumper is a cigarette butt (1899), which the Shorter Oxford takes as a blend of butt and stump with -er, and the OED as of uncertain origin, perhaps the same formation.^[3][2][10] The bittern was called a bog-bumper (1804), from a verb bump imitating its call.^[2]

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 w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ 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)