Etymologically
Log in

chum

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word chum

Pronunciation

chum1 friend

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1684 Creech's translation of Theocritus
Ultimate origin
English chamber-fellow

Etymology

The word for a friend is of uncertain origin.[2][3] It is usually explained as from English a shortening of chamber-fellow, a roommate,[4][5][6][7][8][9] or of a similar compound with mate;[10][6] Etymonline takes it as a spelling of cham, short for chamber,[11] and Merriam-Webster as a shortening with an alteration of the vowel.[12] The OED calls this a well-known conjecture for which no proof or connecting link has been found.[2][10] It began as Oxford University slang, corresponding to Cambridge crony;[4][5][7] Weekley compares the clipped words of the same period, such as mob, and the vowel of comrade.[13][11] Johnson derived it from a Breton word meaning "to live together".[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A roommate, someone who shares lodgings with another: 1684, in Thomas Creech's translation of Theocritus, dedicated to "my chum", a fellow of Wadham College.[2][10][12] The canting dictionary of about 1698 explained it as a chamber-fellow or constant companion.[10]

Semantic evolution

The word began as university slang for a roommate,[11][15] and Johnson (1755) still defined it as a chamber-fellow, a term used in the universities.[14] From sharing rooms it came to mean a close friend, and this is now the usual sense, especially among schoolchildren.[4][12] Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that by the mid-19th century the friendly sense was standard English.[10] The verb, to share rooms, is first found in 1730 in John Wesley;[2][10][12] in 18th- and 19th-century debtors' prisons a newcomer was chummed on another prisoner, made to share his cell, as in Dickens's Pickwick Papers (1837).[10][2] The verb was used for becoming friends from 1884, often as chum up,[2][4] and in Scots for accompanying someone from 1877.[2][7] In Australia a new chum was a recent immigrant, an inexperienced newcomer, from 1838.[2][4] Derivatives of the 19th century include chumship, chummery (shared bachelor quarters), chummage (the quartering of several people in one room) and the adjective chummy, from 1874.[11] In Essex dialect chum was also a man's word for his wife.[16]

Timeline

  • 1684 – one who shares rooms with another; a chamber-fellow.[2][12]
  • 1730 – verb, to share rooms, live together.[2][10]
  • 1837 – verb, to put a person into rooms or a cell with another.[2][10]
  • 1838 – new chum, a recent immigrant to Australia.[2]
  • 1877 – verb, chiefly Scottish, to accompany someone.[2]
  • 1884 – verb, to become friendly with someone, also chum up.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (informal) A close friend: She met her old school chum for lunch.[7][12][4]
  2. (archaic) A roommate.[12][2]
  3. new chum (Australia and New Zealand): a recent immigrant; a greenhorn.[4][2]

Verb

  1. To be or become close friends, often with up: The two boys chummed up on the first day of camp.[7][12][2]
  2. To share rooms with someone.[12][2]
  3. (Scotland) To go along with someone as a companion: I'll chum you to the bus stop.[7][2]

Word family

  • chummy
  • chumship
  • chummery
  • chummage

chum2 fish bait

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1857 Spirit of the Times

Etymology

The word for fish bait is of unknown origin.[2][12][17][4][8] Etymonline suggests that it may come from a Scottish word chum meaning food,[11] and the Dictionary of American Regional English compares the obsolete English and Scots dialect chum, food, and a Newfoundland chum, food cooked to a mush;[18] Wright records chum, food or provisions, in Clydesdale.[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a verb, to bait a fishing place with chum: 1857, in the New York Spirit of the Times, in a passage about chumming for bass.[2][18] Merriam-Webster also dates the noun to 1857.[12]

Semantic evolution

The word is American.[4][3][15] The OED's first noun sense, from 1858, is fish refuse, especially what remains after the oil has been pressed out,[2][4] and the sense of chopped fish or other matter thrown overboard to draw fish follows from 1872, though Merriam-Webster gives it as the first sense.[2][12] The intransitive verb, to fish with chum, is recorded from 1882.[2][18] The Dictionary of American Regional English found chumming in use especially along the North and Central Atlantic coast and in California.[18]

Timeline

  • 1857 – verb, to bait a fishing place with chum.[2][18]
  • 1858 – noun, fish refuse, especially after the oil is pressed out.[2]
  • 1872 – chopped fish thrown overboard to attract fish.[2]
  • 1882 – verb, to fish using chum.[2][18]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Chopped fish, blood or other bait thrown into the water to attract fish: The crew scattered chum behind the boat to draw the sharks.[12][2][7]
  2. Fish refuse, as from a cannery, especially the pulp left after oil is pressed from fish.[12][2]

Verb

  1. To throw chum into the water to attract fish; to bait a place with chum.[12][2][4]
  2. To fish using chum.[2][18]

Word family

  • chummer

Usage notes

The chum salmon, or simply chum, the dog salmon of the North Pacific, has a separate source: it is from Chinook Jargon, the OED's first record being from 1908,[2][12] and the Shorter Oxford gives the Chinook Jargon word as meaning "spotted (salmon)".[4][8] Merriam-Webster dates chum salmon to 1907.[12] A ceramics term chum, a holder used in turning a piece, is perhaps an alteration of chump.[4][12]

References

  1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  11. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ a b 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)
  17. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Cite this entry

“Chum.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/chum. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·