hump
Meanings
- A mound of earth.
- A speed bump or speed hump.
- A deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine.
- A rounded fleshy mass, such as on a camel or zebu.
- An act of sexual intercourse.
- A bad mood.
- A painfully boorish person.
- A wave that forms in front of an operating hovercraft and impedes progress at low speeds.
- To bend something into a hump.
- To carry (something), especially with some exertion.
- To rhythmically thrust the pelvis in a manner conducive to sexual intercourse.
- To dry-hump.
- To have sex (with).
- To exert oneself; to make an effort.
- To vex or annoy.
- To shunt wagons / freight cars over the hump in a hump yard.
- To botch or spoil.
- The Himalayas (a mountain range in Asia), as the challenge for the supply route between India and China.
- A diminutive of the male given names Humphrey or Humphry.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Probably borrowed from Dutch homp (“hump, lump”) or Middle Low German hump (“heap, hill, stump”), from Old Saxon *hump (“hill, heap, thick piece”), from Proto-Germanic *humpaz (“hip, height”), from Proto-Indo-European *kumb- (“curved”). Compare Proto-Germanic *huppōną (“to hop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewb-, *ḱewb- (unnasalised root), and English hub (a softened variant without nasal?). Cognate with West Frisian hompe (“lump, chunk”), Icelandic huppur (“flank”), Welsh cwm (“a hollow”), Latin incumbō (“to lie down”), Albanian sumbull (“round button, bud”), Ancient Greek κύμβη (kúmbē, “bowl”), Avestan 𐬑𐬎𐬨𐬠𐬀 (xumba, “pot”), Sanskrit कुम्ब (kúmba, “thick end of bone”). Replaced, and perhaps influenced by, Old English crump (“crooked, bent”). More at cramp.