bust

Bust, a sculpture or bosom, is from Italian busto; bust, to burst or break, is an alteration of burst.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bʌst/^[4]

bust¹ sculpture

Etymology

It is borrowed from French buste, from Italian busto (“upper body”),^[1][2][3] from Latin bustum, a funeral monument, tomb, originally a funeral pyre,^[1][2][5] perhaps short for ambustum, the neuter of ambustus, burned around, past participle of ambūrere, to scorch (see combustion),^[1][2][5] or perhaps from Old Latin boro, the early form of ūrō, to burn.^[2] Hoad calls the Romance word of unknown origin.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sculpture of the head, shoulders and chest: 1691 in Barnhart and the OED, the 1690s in Etymonline.^[1][6][2]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart explains the change from tomb to sculpture by the Etruscan custom of keeping the ashes of the dead in an urn shaped like the living person, a custom the Romans partly copied.^[1][2] Italian busto was later applied to a bust of the dead placed on a grave, long after cremation had ceased.^[1][2] The upper front part of the body, a woman's bosom, appeared in English in 1727–51, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia,^[1][6][2] and the measurement around a woman's body at the breasts is by 1884.^[2]

Timeline

• 1691 – a sculpture.^[1]
• 1727–51 – the bosom.^[1]
• 1884 – a bust measurement.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sculpture of a person's head, shoulders and upper chest.
2. A woman's bosom, or the measurement around it.
3. The human chest.

Word family

• busty
• bustline

bust² burst

Etymology

It is an alteration of burst, first in American English,^[1][2][3][5] with the loss of -r- as in ass for arse.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a frolic or spree: 1764;^[1][2][6] as a verb, to burst, 1806 in Barnhart and Etymonline, though Merriam-Webster dates it to 1639.^[1][2][5]

Semantic evolution

A sudden failure is from 1842,^[2] and to go bankrupt from 1834.^[2][5] To break into something is from 1859.^[2] ... or bust, as an emphatic phrase, is attested by 1851, probably from the earlier bust one's boiler, from steamboat boilers exploding.^[2] To demote, especially in the army, is from 1918;^[2][1] a police raid or arrest is from 1938,^[2][1] and to arrest from 1953.^[2][1] In card games, to go over 21, it is from 1939.^[2]

Timeline

• 1764 – a spree (noun).^[1]
• 1806 – to burst (verb).^[1]
• 1834 – to go bankrupt.^[2]
• 1842 – a failure.^[2]
• 1918 – to demote.^[2]
• 1938 – a police raid.^[2]
• 1953 – to arrest.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. (informal) To break or smash, or to become broken.
2. (informal) To make or become bankrupt or short of money.
3. (informal) To arrest, or to raid.
4. (informal) To reduce in rank.
5. To tame a horse; to lose at blackjack by going over 21.

Noun

1. A failure or flop.
2. A time of economic depression; bankruptcy: boom and bust.
3. (informal) A police raid or arrest.
4. A spree.

Word family

• busted
• buster

Related words

• bustier
• burst
• combustion

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press