Comments on: Drinking vessels: ‘bumper’ http://blog.oup.com/2012/12/drinking-vessel-bumper-etymology-word-origin/ Academic insights for the thinking world. Fri, 24 May 2013 00:55:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Drinking vessels: 'goblet' | OUPblog http://blog.oup.com/2012/12/drinking-vessel-bumper-etymology-word-origin/#comment-344374 Drinking vessels: 'goblet' | OUPblog Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:30:53 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=32710#comment-344374 [...] more drinking vessel, and I’ll stop. Strangely, here we have another synonym for bumper, and it is again an old word of unknown origin. In English, goblet turned up in the fourteenth [...] [...] more drinking vessel, and I’ll stop. Strangely, here we have another synonym for bumper, and it is again an old word of unknown origin. In English, goblet turned up in the fourteenth [...]

]]> By: Drinking vessels: 'tankard' | OUPblog http://blog.oup.com/2012/12/drinking-vessel-bumper-etymology-word-origin/#comment-333703 Drinking vessels: 'tankard' | OUPblog Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:31:22 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=32710#comment-333703 [...] I am ready to go on with my series “Drinking Vessels.” Now that we have dispensed with bumper, the turn of tankard has come [...] [...] I am ready to go on with my series “Drinking Vessels.” Now that we have dispensed with bumper, the turn of tankard has come [...]

]]> By: Monthly etymology gleanings for December 2012 | OUPblog http://blog.oup.com/2012/12/drinking-vessel-bumper-etymology-word-origin/#comment-329721 Monthly etymology gleanings for December 2012 | OUPblog Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:32:32 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=32710#comment-329721 [...] Bumper. I was unable to find an image of the label used on the bottles of brazen-face beer. My question to someone who has seen the label: “Was there a picture of a saucy mug on it?” (The pun on mug is unintentional.) I am also grateful for the reference to the Gentleman’s Magazine. My database contains several hundred citations from that periodical, but not the one to which Stephen Goranson, a much better sleuth that I am, pointed. This publication was so useful for my etymological bibliography that I asked an extremely careful volunteer to look through the entire set of Lady’s Magazine and of about a dozen other magazines with the word lady in the title. They were a great disappointment: only fashion, cooking, knitting, and all kinds of household work. Women did write letters about words to Notes and Queries, obviously a much more prestigious outlet. However, we picked up a few crumbs even from those sources. The word bomber-nickel puzzled me. I immediately thought of pumpernickel but could not find any connection between the bread and the vessel discussed in the entry I cited. I still see no connection. As for pumpernickel, I am well aware of its origin and discussed it in detail in the entry pimp in my dictionary (pimp, pump, pomp-, pumper-, pamper, and so forth). [...] [...] Bumper. I was unable to find an image of the label used on the bottles of brazen-face beer. My question to someone who has seen the label: “Was there a picture of a saucy mug on it?” (The pun on mug is unintentional.) I am also grateful for the reference to the Gentleman’s Magazine. My database contains several hundred citations from that periodical, but not the one to which Stephen Goranson, a much better sleuth that I am, pointed. This publication was so useful for my etymological bibliography that I asked an extremely careful volunteer to look through the entire set of Lady’s Magazine and of about a dozen other magazines with the word lady in the title. They were a great disappointment: only fashion, cooking, knitting, and all kinds of household work. Women did write letters about words to Notes and Queries, obviously a much more prestigious outlet. However, we picked up a few crumbs even from those sources. The word bomber-nickel puzzled me. I immediately thought of pumpernickel but could not find any connection between the bread and the vessel discussed in the entry I cited. I still see no connection. As for pumpernickel, I am well aware of its origin and discussed it in detail in the entry pimp in my dictionary (pimp, pump, pomp-, pumper-, pamper, and so forth). [...]

]]> By: mollymooly http://blog.oup.com/2012/12/drinking-vessel-bumper-etymology-word-origin/#comment-324141 mollymooly Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:13:02 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=32710#comment-324141 Bomber-nickel is pumpernickel, wherein pumpern is "break wind". When toasting, do you bump your bumper against your neighbour's bumper? Bomber-nickel is pumpernickel, wherein pumpern is “break wind”.

When toasting, do you bump your bumper against your neighbour’s bumper?

]]> By: Stephen Goranson http://blog.oup.com/2012/12/drinking-vessel-bumper-etymology-word-origin/#comment-324119 Stephen Goranson Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:21:22 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=32710#comment-324119 The OED quotes the same article mentioned above for sense 2 (Anything unusually large or abundant)of bumper noun 1: 1759 Gentleman's Mag. XXIX. 271/2 In some of the midland counties, anything large is called a bumper, as a large apple or pear. The OED quotes the same article mentioned above for sense 2 (Anything unusually large or abundant)of bumper noun 1:
1759 Gentleman’s Mag. XXIX. 271/2 In some of the midland counties, anything large is called a bumper, as a large apple or pear.

]]> By: Stephen Goranson http://blog.oup.com/2012/12/drinking-vessel-bumper-etymology-word-origin/#comment-324116 Stephen Goranson Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:08:13 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=32710#comment-324116 Perhaps the source for the claim that bumper "may be a corruption of bumbard, or bombard": Paul Gemsege, Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1759. Here's a reprint: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft82j6bg57;view=1up;seq=236;q1=bumbard;start=1;size=10;page=search;num=216 Perhaps the source for the claim that bumper “may be a corruption of bumbard, or bombard”:
Paul Gemsege, Gentleman’s Magazine, June, 1759. Here’s a reprint:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft82j6bg57;view=1up;seq=236;q1=bumbard;start=1;size=10;page=search;num=216

]]>