bung

See also bụng

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʌŋ

Etymology 1

From Medieval Dutch bonge, bonne or bonghe (“stopper”), or perhaps from French bonde, which may itself be either of Germanic origin, or from Celtic *bunda - either way probably from puncta (“hole”), the feminine singular form of Latin punctus, perfect passive participle of pungō (“pierce into, prick”).

Noun

bung (plural bungs)

1. A stopper, alternative to a cork, often made of rubber used to prevent fluid passing through the neck of a bottle, vat, a hole in a vessel etc.
   • 1996, Dudley Pope, Life in Nelson's Navy

     With the heavy seas trying to broach the boat they baled — and eventually found someone had forgotten to put the bung in.

   • 2008, Christine Carroll, The Senator's Daughter

     Andre pulled the bung from the top of a barrel, applied a glass tube with a suction device, and withdrew a pale, almost greenish liquid.

2. A cecum or anus, especially of a slaughter animal.
3. (slang) A bribe.

Translations

stopper

Bulgarian: канелка (bg) f., запушалка (bg) f.

Finnish: tulppa (fi)

cecum or anus of a slaughter animal

bribe — see bribe

Verb

bung (third-person singular simple present bungs, present participle bunging, simple past and past participle bunged)

1. (transitive) To plug, as with a bung.
   • 1810, Agricultural Surveys: Worcester (1810)

     It has not yet been ascertained, which is the precise time when it becomes indispensable to bung the cider. The best, I believe, that can be done, is to seize the critical moment which precedes the formation of a pellicle on the surface...

   • 2006, A. G. Payne, Cassell's Shilling Cookery

     Put the wine into a cask, cover up the bung-hole to keep out the dust, and when the hissing sound ceases, bung the hole closely, and leave the wine untouched for twelve months.

2. (transitive, informal) To put somewhere without care; chuck.
   • 2004, Bob Ashley, Food and cultural studies

     And to sustain us while we watch or read, we go to the freezer, take out a frozen pizza, bung it in the microwave and make do.

3. (transitive) To batter, bruise; to cause to bulge or swell.
4. (transitive) To pass a bribe.

Derived terms

• bung it on v
• bung on v

Translations

to plug

Bulgarian: запушвам (bg)

Finnish: tulpata (fi)

to heave

Finnish: nakata (fi)

to batter

Finnish: antaa turpaan (fi)

to pass a bribe

Bulgarian: подкупвам (bg)

Finnish: lahjoa (fi)

Etymology 2

From the Australian Aboriginal language Yagara / Jagara / Yuggera bang (“dead”).

Adjective

bung (not comparable)

1. (Australian, slang) Broken, not in working order.
   • 1922, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Karen Oslund (introduction), The Worst Journey in the World, 2004, page 365,

     The evening we reached the glacier Bowers^{[Henry Robertson Bowers]} wrote:

     […] My right eye has gone bung, and my left one is pretty dicky.

   • 1953, Eric Linklater, A Year of Space, page 206,

     ‘Morning Mrs. Weissnicht. I′ve just heard as how your washing-machine′s gone bung.’

   • 1997, Lin Van Hek, The Ballad of Siddy Church, page 219,

     It′s the signal box, the main switchboard, that′s gone bung!

   • 2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 9,

     Henry had said, “Half a million bloomin′ acres. A quarter of a million blanky sheep shorn a year, and they can′t keep on two blokes. It′s not because wer′e union, mate. It′s because we′re newchums. Something′s gone bung with this country.”

Derived terms

• go bung

References

• “bung” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
• Australian National Dictionary, 1988
• Macquarie Dictionary, Second edition, 1991
• Macquarie Slang Dictionary, Revised edition, 2000

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Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *bunga, from either (1) pre-Albanian *bʰeh₂ǵnos, nasalized variant of Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵós ‘beech’ (compare English beech, Ancient Greek φηγός (phēgós, “oak”)); or (2) earlier *bunka, from pre-Albanian *bʰeu-n-iko, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- ‘to grow’ (compare Armenian բուն (bun, “tree trunk”), Dutch bonk ‘clump, lump’).

Noun

bung m.

1. chestnut oak

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Indonesian

Noun

bung

1. A father figure, figurative father.

   Bung Karno - Father Sukarno

See also

• abang
• ayah (real father)
• pak

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Tok Pisin

Verb

bung (trans. bungim)

1. To gather, meet

   Long ples bodi bilong daiman i stap, ol taragau i save kam bung.

   Where the dead body is, the hawks come to gather. Matthew 24:28