bomba

Forms

bomba f (plural bombas)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas takes the word for the pump as a fresh coinage from the same sound-imitating root as Latin bombus (“a buzzing, booming”) and Ancient Greek βόμβος (bómbos), named for the noise the pump makes, rather than a descendant of the Latin word, since the Spanish ⟨o⟩ does not match the short Greek vowel.^[2][3] In the sense “explosive shell” it is a back-formation from Spanish bombarda (“bombard”), itself an imitative alteration of the older lombarda, so called because the gun was invented in Italy.^[2][3] Corominas thinks this back-formation perhaps arose in Spanish rather than in Italian, as usually assumed, since Italian bomba is not recorded until the end of the 17th century and French bombe until 1640.^[2]

The DLE and Wiktionary derive the word directly from the Latin noun, glossed “noise”.^[4][1] Gómez de Silva separates the word for the explosive, from the Italian word, from the word for the pump, imitating the sound of 15th-century pumps.^[5] For Corominas, French pompe, English pump and German Pumpe go back to a variant of the same imitative root.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates the word to 1490, in the sense of a machine for raising water; the DCECH cites Nebrija and records of 1504 and 1506.^[3][2] The earliest CDH hit is Nebrija's Vocabulario (c. 1495): „Bomba para sacar agua” “pump for drawing water”, which he renders by Latin organum pneumaticum.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the pump, above all the ship's pump: Covarrubias in 1611 describes one for drawing water from deep wells and for bailing ships, and uses dar a la bomba as a figure of speech for vomiting.^[8] The sense “explosive shell” appears in 1569.^[3][2] Autoridades in 1726 describes both: the hollow wooden pump of ships, and the hollow cast-iron ball filled with powder and fired from a mortar.^[9]

The round shape of the shell gave the senses of a globe or lamp glass, and derivatives such as bombilla “light bulb” and bombín “bowler hat”.^[2][4] In much of Latin America bomba is a balloon or a bubble, and in Central America a comic improvised quatrain.^[10][4] Figuratively it is a piece of news or an event that causes a stir.^[4] Since 1954 the adverb bomba (pasarlo bomba) means “wonderfully”.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1490 – first record, of a pump for raising water.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has bomba para sacar agua.^[6][7]
• 1535 – first record in the Americas, a water pump at Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1569 – first record of the sense “explosive shell”.^[3][2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from the Greek verb for “to resound”, after the sound it makes.^[8]
• 1726 – Autoridades describes the ship's pump and the mortar bomb.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first derives it from Latin bombus.^[13]
• 1954 – first record of the adverb bomba “wonderfully”, in the Madrid press.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bomb: an explosive device with a mechanism to set it off at the chosen moment.^[4][1]
2. (in apposition) Carrying a bomb: un paquete bomba.^[4]
3. A pump for moving water or another liquid; a device for extracting or compressing air.^[4][1]
4. A petrol pump.^[4]
5. The final bang of a string of firecrackers.^[4]
6. A glass globe placed over a lamp.^[4]
7. (figurative) A person, thing or event that causes a sensation: La noticia de su boda fue una bomba.^[4]
8. (music) The tuning slide of a brass instrument.^[4]
9. (Latin America) A bubble; a balloon.^[4][10]
10. (colloquial, Andalusia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru) drunkenness.^[4]

Word family

• bombilla
• abombar
• antibomba
• bombazo
• bombear
• bombero
• bombín
• bombardear
• bombacho

Related words

• bombo
• rimbombante
• bombarda

Usage notes

Set phrases include caer como una bomba “to come as a bombshell” and noticia bomba “bombshell”, and the colloquial pasarlo bomba “to have a great time”.^[4][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 619
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bomba
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. bomba
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 121
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. bomba
7. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 304
8. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 329
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. bomba
10. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. bomba
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. bomba
12. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. bomba
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 160