bumper

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English bump

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āsjos

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English bumper

From bump + -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌmpə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌmpəɹ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmpə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: bump‧er

Noun

bumper (plural bumpers)

1. Someone or something that bumps.
2. (obsolete) A drinking vessel filled to the brim.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     [T]hey now shook hands heartily, and drank bumpers of strong beer to healths which we think proper to bury in oblivion.

   • 1756 February 3 (first performance), Samuel Foote, The Englishman Return’d from Paris, Being the Sequel to The Englishman in Paris. A Farce […], London: […] Paul Vaillant, […], published 1756, →OCLC, Act I, page 27:

     Pork ſucceeds to Beef, Pies to Puddings: The Cloth is remov'd, Madam, drench'd vvith a Bumper, drops a Courtſey, and departs; […]

   • 1818, John Keats, Written in the cottage where Burns was born:

     Yet can I gulp a bumper to thy name,— / O smile among the shades, for this is fame!

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     Mr. Horrocks served myself and my pupils with three little glasses of wine, and a bumper was poured out for my lady.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter XI, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

     Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it by bumpers, looking at his friend.

   • 1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance  […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC:

     Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry; / Fill, O fill the pirate glass; / And, to make us more than merry, / Let the pirate bumper pass.

3. (colloquial, now chiefly attributive) Anything large or successful.
5. (automotive) Parts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision; fender.
6. Any mechanical device used to absorb an impact, soften a collision, or protect against impact.

   The company sells screw-on rubber bumpers and feet.

7. (cricket) A bouncer.
8. (billiards) A side wall of a pool table.
9. A cylindrical object used (as a substitute for birds) to train dogs to retrieve.
10. (broadcasting) A short ditty or jingle used to separate a show from the advertisements.
11. (slang, dated) A covered house at a theatre, etc., in honour of some favourite performer.
12. (slang, Caribbean, Jamaica) A woman's posterior, particularly one that is considered full and desirable.
13. (music) An extra musician (not notated in the score) who assists the principal French horn by playing less-exposed passages, so that the principal can save their 'lip' for difficult solos. Also applied to other sections of the orchestra.
14. (pinball) An object on a playfield that applies force to the pinball when hit, often giving a minor increase in score.
15. (Australia, slang) A cigarette butt.
16. (horse racing) In National Hunt racing, a flat race for horses that have not yet competed either in flat racing or over obstacles.
17. (video games) A shoulder button on a gamepad.
18. (bowling) Synonym of gutter guard (“rail to prevent a ball from rolling into the gutter”).

Derived terms

• bumper bar
• bumper bullet
• bumper car
• bumper crop
• bumperette
• bumperfish
• bumper jack
• bumper music
• bumper pool
• bumper-sticker
• bumper sticker
• bumper to bumper
• bumper-to-bumper
• donut bumper
• doughnut bumper
• front bumper
• meteor bumper
• ride one's bumper
• rubber baby buggy bumper
• taco bumper

Descendants

Descendants

• Dutch: bumper
• Japanese: バンパー (banpā)
• Korean: 범퍼 (beompeo)
• Russian: ба́мпер (bámper)

Translations

someone or something that bumps

• Dutch: botser m
• Finnish: törmääjä

drinking vessel filled to the brim

• Bulgarian: пълна догоре чаша (pǎlna dogore čaša)

impact absorber on a vehicle

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Apache:

  Western Apache: biyedaa’

• Arabic: مِصَدّ m (miṣadd)
• Armenian: բամպեր (hy) (bamper)
• Azerbaijani: bamper
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: ба́мпер m (bámpjer), ба́мпэр m (bámper)
• Bulgarian: бро́ня (bg) f (brónja)
• Burmese: ဘန်ပါ (my) (bhanpa)
• Catalan: para-xocs (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 保險杠 (zh) (bǎoxiǎngāng), 緩衝器 / 缓冲器 (zh) (huǎnchōngqì)

• Czech: nárazník (cs) m
• Danish: kofanger c, stødfanger c
• Dutch: bumper (nl) m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: põrkeraud, kaitseraud (et)
• Finnish: puskuri (fi)
• French: pare-chocs (fr) m
• Georgian: ბამპერი (bamṗeri)
• German: Stoßstange (de) f
• Greek: προφυλακτήρας (el) m (profylaktíras)
• Hebrew: פָּגוֹשׁ (he) m (pagósh)
• Hindi: बम्पर m (bampar)
• Hungarian: lökhárító (hu)
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: paraurti (it) m
• Japanese: バンパー (ja) (banpā)
• Kazakh: бампер (bamper)
• Khmer: ក្បាំងឡាន (kbang laan)
• Korean: 범퍼 (beompeo)
• Kyrgyz: бампер (bamper)
• Lao: ກັນຊົນ (kan son)
• Latvian: bamperis m
• Lithuanian: bamperis m
• Macedonian: одбојник m (odbojnik), браник m (branik)
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Māori: pākaituki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: støtfanger m, støytfanger m

  Nynorsk: støytfangar m

• Persian: سپر (fa) (separ)
• Polish: zderzak (pl) m
• Portuguese: para-choque (pt) m, para-choques m
• Romanian: bară de protecție f
• Russian: ба́мпер (ru) m (bámper)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: о̀дбо̄јнӣк m, бра̀нӣк m

  Latin: òdbōjnīk (sh) m, brànīk (sh) m

• Slovak: nárazník m
• Slovene: odbijač (sl) m, odbojnik m
• Spanish: parachoques (es) m, bómper m (Central America, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico), búmper m (Panama, Costa Rica), defensa (es) f (Mexico), paragolpes (es) m (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay), paragolpe (es) m
• Swedish: kofångare (sv) c, stötfångare (sv) c
• Tajik: сипар (tg) (sipar), бампер (bamper)
• Thai: กันชน (th) (gan-chon)
• Turkish: tampon (tr)
• Ukrainian: ба́мпер m (bámper)
• Urdu: بمپر m (bampar)
• Uzbek: bamper
• Vietnamese: hãm xung, đỡ va

mechanical device to absorb impact

• Bulgarian: бу́фер m (búfer)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 緩衝器 / 缓冲器 (zh) (huǎnchōngqì)

• Dutch: stootkussen (nl) n, stootblok (nl) n, stootrand m
• Finnish: suojus (fi), pehmike (fi), puskuri (fi)
• French: heurtoir (fr) m
• Japanese: ショックアブソーバー (ja) (shokkuabusōbā), 緩衝器 (ja) (かんしょうき, kanshōki)
• Polish: zderzak (pl) m
• Russian: бу́фер (ru) m (búfer)

cricket: bouncer

side wall of a pool table

• Dutch: boord (nl) m, kant (nl) m
• Finnish: valli (fi)
• French: bande (fr) f

short ditty or jingle used to separate a show from the advertisements

• Catalan: molinet m
• Dutch: jingle (nl) m, aankondigingsjingle m
• Finnish: jatkuu-tunnus
• Italian: bumper (it) m, stacchetto (it) m
• Spanish: cortinilla f

in pinball

• Finnish: bumpperi, bumper (fi), potkutorni
• Portuguese: amortecedor (pt) m

Adjective

bumper (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Wonderfully large; (as if) filled to the bumpers at the top of a silo, or successful in this regard.

   a bumper collection of silly jokes

   What a bumper year for apples!

   We harvested a bumper crop of arugula and parsnips this year.

   • 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume II (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     "I see I must bribe you to harbour me—come, pledge me in a bumper health to the last young lady that slept at Wolf's Crag, and liked her quarters.—My bones are not so tender as hers, and I am resolved to occupy her apartment tonight, that I may judge how hard the couch is that love can soften."

Translations

colloquial: large

• Bulgarian: пълен догоре (pǎlen dogore)
• Dutch: groot (nl), vol (nl), immens (nl)
• Finnish: runsas (fi)
• Spanish: abundante (es), récord (es)

Verb

bumper (third-person singular simple present bumpers, present participle bumpering, simple past and past participle bumpered)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To drink from the vessels called bumpers.

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bompər/, [ˈb̥ɔmb̥ər]
• Homophone: bomber

Verb

bumper

1. present tense of bumpe

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English bumper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʏmpər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bum‧per
• Rhymes: -ʏmpər

Noun

bumper m (plural bumpers, diminutive bumpertje n)

1. bumper of a car, fender

Derived terms

• bumperkleven
• bumpersticker

Descendants

• Indonesian: bumper, bemper

Indonesian

Alternative forms

• bamper, bemper (nonstandard)

Etymology

From Dutch bumper, from English bumper, from bump + -er.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈbumpər/ [ˈbum.pər]
  • Syllabification: bum‧per
• (nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ˈbampər/ [ˈbam.pər]

Noun

bumpêr

1. bumper (parts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision)

Further reading

• “bumper”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Spanish

Noun

bumper m (plural bumpers)

1. bumper of a car