bumpkin

bumpkin
\ \ [16] Originally, bumpkin seems to have been a humorously disparaging epithet for a Dutch person: in the first known record of the word, in Peter Levins’s Dictionary of English and Latin words 1570, it is glossed batavus (Batavia was the name of an island at the mouth of the Rhine in ancient times, and was henceforth associated with the Netherlands). It was probably a Dutch word, boomkenlittle tree’ (from boomtree’, related to German baumtree’ and English beam), used with reference to Netherlanders’ supposedly dumpy stature. The phrase ‘country bumpkin’ is first recorded from the later 18th century.
\ \ Cf.BEAM

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Bumpkin — Bump kin, n. [The same word as bumkin, which Cotgrave defines thus: Bumkin, Fr. chicambault, the luffe block, a long and thick piece of wood, whereunto the fore sayle and sprit sayle are fastened, when a ship goes by the winde. Hence, a clumsy… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • bumpkin — awkward country fellow, 1560s, probably from M.Du. bommekijn little barrel, dim. of boom tree. Apparently, though itself Dutch, it began as a derogatory reference to Dutch people as short and dumpy …   Etymology dictionary

  • bumpkin — hick, yokel, rube, clodhopper, clown, lout, *boor, churl …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • bumpkin — ► NOUN ▪ an unsophisticated person from the countryside. ORIGIN perhaps from Dutch boomken little tree or earlier bommekijn little barrel , denoting a dumpy person …   English terms dictionary

  • bumpkin — [bump′kin] n. [prob. < Du boomkin, short tree, dim. of boom, tree] 1. a short boom projecting from a sailing ship, used as in securing a stay or brace 2. [prob. < MDu bommekijn, small cask < bomme, a cask + kijn, dim. suffix] an awkward… …   English World dictionary

  • bumpkin — n. a country bumpkin * * * [ bʌmpkɪn] a country bumpkin …   Combinatory dictionary

  • bumpkin — [16] Originally, bumpkin seems to have been a humorously disparaging epithet for a Dutch person: in the first known record of the word, in Peter Levins’s Dictionary of English and Latin words 1570, it is glossed batavus (Batavia was the name of… …   The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

  • bumpkin — UK [ˈbʌmpkɪn] / US noun [countable] Word forms bumpkin : singular bumpkin plural bumpkins an insulting word for someone who lives in the country. This word is used by people who think that people from the country are not intelligent or educated …   English dictionary

  • bumpkin — noun Bumpkin is used after these nouns: ↑country …   Collocations dictionary

  • bumpkin — Synonyms and related words: boor, bucolic, clod, clodhopper, clown, country bumpkin, farmer, gawk, gawky, hayseed, hick, hillbilly, looby, lout, lubber, lummox, oaf, provincial, rube, rustic, yokel …   Moby Thesaurus

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