bomb [L16th] In terms of origin, a bomb goes boom (LME from a Germanic root). Bomb probably goes right back to Greek bombos ‘booming, humming’, an imitation of the sound. The first bombs, in the late 17th century, are what we would call ‘shells’. Soldiers ignited their fuses and fired them from *mortars. Before they were dramatically unexpected events or sexy blondes, bombshells [E18th] were originally the casings of such devices. Bombs as we know them came to prominence in the First World War. It was not until after the Second World War, though, that to go like a bomb began to be used for ‘to go very fast’, or cost a bomb for ‘be very expensive’. In the 1960s bomb developed conflicting senses on either side of the Atlantic, being used for a failure in the USA and a success in British English. A bombardier [L16th] gets his name from an early siege engine called a bombard [LME], which came from the same source as bomb. See also atom.