chump

Etymology

It is of uncertain origin.^[2][3] Most dictionaries take it as perhaps a blend of chunk and lump,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} or of chunk and stump.^{[9][10][11][12]} The OED, in an entry not revised since 1889, calls it a modern parallel form of chunk, perhaps influenced by chop or by lump, stump and clump.^[3] Etymonline calls it perhaps a variant of chunk or a nasalized form of chub, comparing Old Norse kubbr (“block of wood”) and its variant kumbr;^[2] Skeat had compared the same Norse forms.^[13][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short thick lump of wood, chopped or sawn off from timber: 1680, in Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, which Johnson later quoted.^[3][4][14] Etymonline dates the word to 1703.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the dialects of the 19th century, from Yorkshire and Cheshire to Wiltshire, a chump was a log for the fire, especially one of the short lengths into which crooked branches were sawn, and in West Yorkshire boys went chumping, gathering wood for the bonfires of 5 November.^[15] The thick end of anything, especially of a loin of mutton, is recorded from 1861, in Dickens's Great Expectations.^[3] In slang the word meant the head from 1864, with off one's chump, out of one's mind, now chiefly British;^[3][4][16] the sense "fool, blockhead", a man no cleverer than a block of wood, is dated by the OED and Etymonline to 1883,^[3][2] but Green's Dictionary of Slang has a person, especially an ordinary working man and so a fool, from 1857.^[16] In American slang it then came to mean a dupe or intended victim,^[4] and gave the adjective chump, stupid or second-rate (1915), and the verb, to trick or make a fool of someone (1967).^[16] Chump change, a trifling sum, is recorded by 1950.^[2]

Timeline

• 1680 – a short thick lump of wood.^[3][4]
• 1857 – a person, and so a fool.^[16]
• 1861 – the thick end of anything, especially of a loin of mutton.^[3]
• 1864 – the head, also in off one's chump.^[3]
• 1883 – a blockhead; also a chop from the chump end.^[3][2]
• 1915 – adjective, in American slang, stupid or gullible.^[16]
• 1950 – chump change.^[2]
• 1967 – verb, to trick or make a fool of someone.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) A foolish or easily fooled person; a dupe or blockhead: Only a chump would pay that much for a used bicycle.^[5][4]
2. A short, thick, heavy block of wood.^[5][4][3]
3. The thick blunt end of something, especially of a loin of lamb or mutton; also used before another noun, as in chump chop.^[5][9][3]
4. (slang, chiefly British) The head, especially in off one's chump, out of one's mind.^[5][4][3]

Word family

• chumpish
• chumpishness
• chump change

Related words

• chunk
• lump
• stump
• champ

Usage notes

A separate verb chump, to munch or champ noisily, recorded from 1854 in Thackeray, is an alteration of champ;^[3][4] the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Devon for eating noisily and in Cumberland for biting up hard food with ease.^[15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
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. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ 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 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)
16. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com