bummer n.

"loafer, idle person," 1855, possibly an extension of the British word for "backside" (similar development took place in Scotland by 1540), but more probably from German slang bummler "loafer," agent noun from bummeln "go slowly, waste time." The earliest uses are in representations of German immigrant dialect in the U.S. In the American Civil War it was common in the sense "camp-follower, plundering straggler."

According to Kluge, the German word is from 17c., and its earliest sense is "oscillate back and forth." It is perhaps connected to words in German for "dangle" (baumeln), via "back-and-forth motion" of a bell clapper, transferred to "going back and forth," hence "doing nothing." The meaning "bad experience" is 1968 slang.

词汇	bummer
词源	bummer n. "loafer, idle person," 1855, possibly an extension of the British word for "backside" (similar development took place in Scotland by 1540), but more probably from German slang bummler "loafer," agent noun from bummeln "go slowly, waste time." The earliest uses are in representations of German immigrant dialect in the U.S. In the American Civil War it was common in the sense "camp-follower, plundering straggler." According to Kluge, the German word is from 17c., and its earliest sense is "oscillate back and forth." It is perhaps connected to words in German for "dangle" (baumeln), via "back-and-forth motion" of a bell clapper, transferred to "going back and forth," hence "doing nothing." The meaning "bad experience" is 1968 slang. Entries linking to bummer bum n.2 "dissolute loafer, tramp," 1864, American English, from bummer (q.v.) "loafer, idle person" (1855), which is probably from German. Bum first appears in a German-American context, and bummer was popular during the American Civil War in the slang of the North's army (which had as many as 216,000 German immigrants in the ranks). There may also be influence or merging with bum (n.1) "buttocks," which was applied insultingly to persons from 1530s and is in Jamieson's 1825 Scottish dictionary. Bum's rush "forcible ejection" is recorded by 1910. bum v. 1863, "loaf and beg," American English, a word from the Civil War, perhaps a back-formation from bummer "loafer," or from bum (n.2). The meaning "feel depressed" is from 1973, perhaps from bummer in the "bad experience" sense. Related: Bummed; bumming. updated on October 25, 2022
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bummer n.

Entries linking to bummer