lump

lump¹ mass, swelling

Etymology

The noun for a shapeless mass is inherited from Middle English lumpe, also lompe,^[5][6][7] of unknown origin.^{[7][8][9][10][3]} The MED thinks it was probably an Old English word, but Etymonline notes that it is not recorded there and that no trace of it is found in the older Germanic languages.^[5][7][8] The closest words in sense are Danish lump (“lump”), recorded from the 16th century, and Norwegian and Swedish dialect lump (“block, stump, log”);^{[8][10][9][11]} the original sense may be "shapeless piece", seen in Dutch lompe (“rag”), now lomp, and in Low German lump (“coarse, heavy, rude”), from which German Lumpen (“rag”) comes.^[8][9][12] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart relate it to Middle High German lumpe (“rag”) and perhaps to lampen (“to hang down”), and so to limp;^[1][2] Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary suggest a borrowing from Dutch or Low German.^[2][13] Ayto thinks it rose from a poorly recorded medieval Germanic group of words for coarse or shapeless things.^[3] The OED mentions an old comparison with lap, and a guess linking it with Old English limpan (“to happen”), past participle lumpen, as a piece of whatever size chance gives.^[8] The verb meaning to put together was formed from the noun.^[7][8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mass of material of no special shape: Barnhart dates the word before 1325,^[2] and the MED's first record, also before 1325, glosses French une bribe de blanc payn, a piece of white bread.^[5] The OED's first quotation is from a manuscript of the Cursor Mundi from before 1400.^[8] It occurs as a surname as early as 1224.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Already in Middle English the word covered a lump of clay, a crowd or mass of troops, a lout or good-for-nothing, and a swelling.^[5][8] The swelling sense, especially one caused by injury or disease, is in the OED from about 1500,^[8][7] and a lump in one's throat, a tightness in the throat from emotion, from 1803.^[8][7] In Tyndale's Bible (1526) lump is the potter's mass of clay and the dough for one baking, used figuratively.^[8] From 1523 it meant a great quantity, in slang or dialect;^[8][14] from the 1590s it also meant a dull, stupid person.^[7] The plural lumps, hard knocks, is recorded from the 1930s,^[7][8] as in to take one's lumps.^[15] The verb meant to gather into a lump in the 15th century;^[7] from 1624 it meant to put things together in one mass or group without regard to their differences;^[8][1][7] lump together follows in 1692,^[8] and in taxonomy it meant to classify plants and animals broadly, without making a species of every small variation.^[8] The phrase lump sum, a single payment for several items, dates from 1867, and the same sense is in lump-work (1851).^[7] In Britain the lump later meant self-employed building workers paid in lump sums.^[15][8]

Timeline

• 1224 – as a surname.^[7]
• before 1325 – a shapeless mass.^[2][5]
• c. 1380 – a heap or cluster; a group of people (obsolete by 1781).^[8]
• c. 1500 – a swelling or protuberance.^[8]
• 1523 – a great quantity.^[8][14]
• 1526 – a potter's mass of clay; a mass of dough.^[8]
• 1624 – verb, to put together in one group without discrimination.^[8][1]
• 1803 – a lump in one's throat.^[8][7]
• 1867 – lump sum.^[7]
• 1935 – plural, hard knocks.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A solid mass of no definite shape: a lump of clay.
2. A lump of sugar.
3. (medicine) A swelling or tumour.
4. A collection of things taken together; an aggregate.
5. (informal) A heavy, awkward or stupid person.
6. lumps (US, informal): punishment, defeat or hard knocks: She took her lumps and kept going.
7. a lump in one's throat: a tight feeling in the throat caused by emotion.

Verb

1. To put together in one group without regard to differences, often with together: The report lumps all part-time workers together.
2. To form into lumps, or to cover with lumps.

Adjective

1. In one whole, not divided into parts, as in lump sum.

Word family

• lumpy
• lumpish
• lumper
• lumpectomy
• lumpingly
• lumpfish

lump² put up with

Etymology

The verb meaning to put up with is of uncertain or unknown origin.^[1][2][6][7] It is an extended sense of an older lump, to look sulky or dislike.^[2][7][14] The OED and the Shorter Oxford take that older verb as a word of symbolic sound, like dump, grump, hump and mump,^[8][9][12] and Weekley thinks it may have been coined from lour, with which it was usually paired, after dump and grump.^[11] Etymonline also mentions a possible origin in lump¹, from the idea of swallowing the whole,^[7] and Ayto thinks its ancestry even more obscure than the noun's.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To look sulky or disagreeable: 1577, in Stanyhurst's description of Ireland, in early use always together with lour.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to put up with, endure", contrasted with like, is recorded in 1791 in the saying as you like it, you may lump it, which Barnhart counts as American English.^[2][7][1] The OED's first quotation for it is from Neal's Down-Easters (1833),^[8] while Green's dates if you don't like it, you may lump it to 1828, in Neal's Rachel Dyer.^[14] The old sense, to look sulky, survived only in dialect.^[9]

Timeline

• 1577 – to look sulky or disagreeable.^[8][2]
• 1791 – to put up with, in as you like it, you may lump it.^[2][1]
• 1828 – if you don't like it, you may lump it.^[14]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. (informal) To put up with something unwelcome, usually in like it or lump it: The rules have changed, and you can like it or lump it.