humpback

Etymology

It is formed from English hump + back;^[2][3][4][5] the OED notes that the first part may here be taken as an adjective.^[2] Dictionary.com takes the noun as apparently a back-formation from humpbacked,^[6] which the OED records earlier, from 1681.^[2] The OED observes that this group of words appeared about 1680–1720 in place of the earlier words formed with crump, crooked, and that the adjective could be a mixture of hunchbacked and the older adjective formed with crump;^[2] the Shorter Oxford says that the noun replaced the earlier synonym formed with that word and was perhaps influenced by hunchback,^[4] and Collins calls it an alteration of the older form.^[7] The first element is of uncertain origin;^[2][3] it agrees in form with Dutch homp (“lump, hunk”) and Low German humpe (“piece, hunk”),^[2][4] and Etymonline suggests the Dutch word, from Middle Low German hump (“bump”), as the source.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A back with a hump: 1697, in Vanbrugh's Æsop;^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to the 1690s, as an adjective, and its noun use to 1709.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The compound was soon used for a person with a humped back (1712, in a translation of the Arabian Nights), a sense the OED now marks as potentially offensive.^[2] From 1726 it was applied to animals with a humped back, chiefly the humpback whale and the humpback salmon, and used as an adjective, humpbacked.^[2] Johnson (1755) entered it as "crooked back; high shoulders".^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also uses it for the medical condition kyphosis.^[8] In Britain a humpback bridge is a narrow road bridge that rises and falls steeply.^[7]

Timeline

• 1697 – a back with a hump.^[2][8]
• 1712 – a person with a humped back, a hunchback.^[2]
• 1726 – the humpback whale, salmon and other humped animals; also as an adjective, humpbacked.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED and Etymonline give 1725.^[9][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A back with a hump; a crooked back, or the condition of kyphosis.^[8][2][10]
2. A person with a humped back; a hunchback (now potentially offensive).^{[2][7][8][10]}
3. A humpback whale, a large baleen whale with very long flippers.^[7][8][10]
4. The pink salmon, a Pacific salmon whose male grows a humped back.^[8][7]
5. (British) A humpback bridge.^[7]

Adjective

1. Having a humped back; humpbacked.^[2][4]

Word family

• humpbacked
• humpback salmon
• humpback whale

Related words

• hump
• back
• hunchback
• crump

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin