Bumping

How to spell bumping

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bumping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bumping mean?

1. verbKnocking or colliding against something, usually accidentally and with a jolt.
2. verbRefusing a confirmed passenger a seat because a flight has been overbooked.

Bumping in a sentence

• She kept bumping her head on the low beam in the attic.

• The airline was criticised for bumping paying customers from the oversold flight.

• The trolley wheels were bumping over the cobbled street.

• Compensation rules apply when bumping a traveller against their will.

Where does bumping come from?

Language of origin: Other

The base word 'bump' first appears in English in the late 1500s and is generally thought to be imitative in origin, meaning it was coined to echo the dull, heavy sound of two solid things knocking together. Because it began as a sound effect rather than a borrowing, it has no ancient classical pedigree; it simply imitates the noise of a collision, much like 'thump' and 'thud' do. Over time 'bump' broadened from the noise itself to the act of knocking against something and then to the raised lump such a knock can leave on the skin. The form 'bumping' is the ordinary present participle, made by adding '-ing', and because the word ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant, the 'p' is doubled before the suffix, which is the small spelling point worth remembering.

How the word is built

• bump (imitative root: a knock or thud)
• -ing (present participle suffix)