Etymologically
Log in

hump

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:55. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Etymology

The OED calls it of uncertain origin.[2] It is first recorded in the compound hump-backed (1681), and with its whole family it seems to have taken the place, between about 1680 and 1720, of the earlier crump, as in crump-backed;[2][3] that word goes back to Old English crump (“crooked”).[3][4] Most dictionaries connect it with Low German and Dutch: it is probably borrowed from Dutch homp (“lump, hunk”) or Middle Low German hump (“bump”),[1][4][5][6] compare Low German humpe (“hump; lump, hunk of bread”).[7][8] Wiktionary and Barnhart trace these to Proto-Germanic *humpaz,[1][3] which Köbler glosses as hip or height and compares with huppr;[9] Etymonline and Wiktionary take it further back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to bend, Proto-Indo-European *kemb- or Proto-Indo-European *kumb- (“curved”).[4][1] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart list as cognates, besides the Dutch and Low German words, Latin incumbō (“to lie down”), Ancient Greek κύμβη (kúmbē, “cup, bowl, boat”) and Sanskrit कुम्ब (kúmba, “thick end of a bone”),[10][3][1] and Skeat compared Lithuanian kumpas (“hunched”).[11] The OED points out, however, that the Low German and Dutch words mean a lump or piece broken off something, not a swelling on it, and that the late appearance of the words in every language leaves their origin undetermined.[2] It and Ayto also allow that hump-backed may have been a blend of hunch-backed and crump-backed,[2][6] as Weekley and Hoad thought.[12][8] Johnson thought it perhaps a corruption of bump.[13] The verb is formed from the noun.[2][14][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Found first in hump-backed (1681).[2][3][10] As a word on its own it meant a humpbacked person in 1708, in Motteux's translation of Rabelais, and in 1709 the protuberance on a crooked back, in the Tatler.[2]

Semantic evolution

The Shorter Oxford records an older noun, a complaint or slight, chiefly in the phrase humps and grumps, from the mid 17th to the mid 18th century,[14] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins takes it as the ancestor of get the hump;[15] Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes Humps and Grumps from 1731.[16] The slang sense "a fit of ill humour" is in the OED from 1727,[2] and Hoad suggests it came from humping the back in sulkiness.[8] From the body the word passed to the landscape: a rounded mound or hummock (1838), a mound in a railway yard over which wagons run down by gravity (1901), and a mountain barrier hard to cross (1914, chiefly American).[2] The figurative over the hump, past the worst, is recorded from 1914,[2] and a hump in the road, a speed bump, from 1924.[2] The verb meant to have sex from 1785 (Grose),[2][4] to make oneself hurry or exert oneself in American use from 1835, and to hunch the back from 1840;[2] in Australia and New Zealand from 1853 it meant to carry a load on one's back, as in hump one's swag,[2][14] and a hump was a hike with such a load (1863).[2] In Scots and English dialects a hump was also a hillock or a lump of something, and in North Yorkshire the verb meant to sulk.[17]

Timeline

  • 1681 – in hump-backed.[2][10][3]
  • 1708 – a humpbacked person.[2]
  • 1709 – a protuberance on the back, formed by a curved spine or as a natural feature of animals such as the camel.[2]
  • 1727 – a fit of ill humour, as in give someone the hump.[2]
  • 1785 – verb, to have sexual intercourse (coarse slang).[2][10]
  • 1805 – the flesh of a bison's hump, eaten as food.[2]
  • 1835 – verb, to exert oneself, to hurry (American).[2]
  • 1838 – a rounded mound of earth or rock.[2]
  • 1840 – verb, to make humped, to hunch.[2][4]
  • 1853 – verb, to carry on one's back (Australian and New Zealand).[2]
  • 1901 – a mound in a railway yard used for sorting wagons.[2][4]
  • 1914 – a mountain barrier; the critical point of an undertaking, as in over the hump.[2]
  • 1924 – a raised strip across a road to slow traffic.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A rounded protuberance or bulge.[10][18]
  2. A fleshy lump on the back of an animal such as a camel, bison or whale.[10][18][5]
  3. A rounded deformity of the human back caused by a curved spine, as in kyphosis.[18][5][10]
  4. A low mound of earth; a hummock.[10][18][5]
  5. A raised strip across a road that makes vehicles slow down; a speed bump.[2]
  6. A mountain range or barrier that has to be crossed, especially by aircraft.[10][5][2]
  7. over the hump: past the hardest part of a task or period: Once the exams were over, the students felt they were over the hump.[18][2]
  8. the hump (chiefly British, informal): a fit of sulking or low spirits, as in to get the hump.[18][10][5]
  9. (vulgar slang) An act of sexual intercourse.[5][2]

Verb

  1. To bend or arch into a hump; to hunch: The cat humped its back at the dog.[18][10][2]
  2. (chiefly British and Australian, informal) To carry something heavy, especially on the back or shoulders.[18][10][2]
  3. (informal) To exert oneself; to hurry.[10][2]
  4. (vulgar slang) To have sexual intercourse with.[10][2]

Word family

  • humped
  • humper
  • humpless
  • humpbacked
  • humpy
  • humpback

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 35 36 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ 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)
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins