A Dictionary of Cont..

ugger 74
it read: Thou shalt not need to be afraid for
any bugs by night. An interesting illustration of
misunderstandings that lie in wait for the uninstructed
reader is found in King Edward’s
remark. in Shakespeare’s Third Part of Kinn
Henry iI, that W&wick was a bug tha; fear’>
us all. To the common reader in America today
that line would convey the idea that Warwick
was an insect, a crawling creature, who was
afraid of everybody. Whereas it means that Warwick
was a terror that frightened them all.
Buggy, in horse and buggy, may be related to
bug in its meaning of “bogy.” It is not absolutely
certain, but it is believed that when these light
vehicles were first made they were humorously
called bogies because they went so fast they were
a terror.
bugger in British usage means a sodomite, being
the linguistic residue of a piece of medieval
religious propaganda to the effect that the Bulgarians,
who were heretics, were also sodomites.
In England the aord is indecent, both as a noun
and a verb, though it is used, as many scurrilous
terms are, by the lower classes as a term of
endearment for children.
In American usage it is a much milder word.
Only the educated know of its darker meanings.
As a slang term for a fellow, person, or mischievous
child it is now falling into disuse. As a
verb it is still used widely, in slang, to mean to
frustrate or to reduce the confusion (He came
in with his bright ideas again and buggered the
works).
build. The past tense is built. The participle is
also built.
A regular form builded was once literary
English for both the past tense and the participle,
but it is now confined largely to poetry.
building. In American usage building, as a term
for a block of business offices, always pretixed
with the (the Empire State Building, the Chrysler
Building), is used where in England house is
preferred (South Africa House, Imperial Chemicals
House). In America, particularly in former
days, house would mean hotel (The Palmer
House, The Parker House).
built. See build.
bulk, properly magnitude in three dimensions (A
building of great bulk loomed before us), has,
despite the protests of many grammarians, come
in standard usage to mean the greater part, the
main mass or body (The bulk of the lumber
was stored in an abandoned shed. The bulk of
the army was held in reserve). It still has enough
of the sense of three-dimensional mass about it,
however, to seem inappropriate if applied to
trifling things. The bulk of the page was devoted
to a re-statement of the facts would seem absurd.
And a discriminating speaker or writer would
avoid using it as a synonym for majority. The
bulk of the army suggests a mass. The bulk of
those present voted against the proposal would
not be as good as the majority of those present.
bull. The word bull, especially when used in combinations,
has a number of peculiarly American
meanings. As a slang term for boasting, bluffing,
and talking pretentious nonsense it is almost universal
in the United States. In college slang bull
session is a half-contemptuous term for a sophomoric
discussion of sex, religion, philosophy,
and the mysteries of life in general.
Bulldoze is slang for intimidate. A bulldozer
used to be one who bulldozed. Now it refers,
almost exclusively, to a powerful caterpillar
tractor having a vertical blade at the front end
for moving earth, stumps, rocks, and so on, or
to the operator of such a tractor. Indeed, the
verb to bulldoze would now mean, to more
Americans than not, the use of such a tractor
(The man said he’d be here tomorrow to bulldoze
that black dirt around the new house). The
noun is generally listed in the dictionaries as
slang and the verb, in this sense, is not listed at
all. But in the vast building boom following
World War II both words achieved a currency
which if continued will compel their acceptance
as standard usage.
bull in a china shop. As a simile for destructive
blundering, like a bull in a china shop must have
been amusing when it was first thought of, but
it is now wearisome and should be avoided.
It is not even necessarily apt. In 1939 Mr.
Fred Waring, in payment of a wager to Mr. Paul
Douglas, led a bull into Plummer’s China Shop
on Fifth Avenue, in New York, after posting
bond to cover any damage that might be done.
Ttie bull was led up and down the aisles and led
out without having done any damage. Mr. Waring
himself unfortunately knocked over a small
table of china.
bum. In American speech a bum is a shiftless or
dissolute person, an habitual loafer and tramp.
To bum is to get for nothing, to borrow with
no expectation of returning. To go on the bum
is to become a tramp and live an idle and dissolute
life. As an adjective, bum means poor or
wretched. The word is never employed formally
but it is known and used universally in informal
speech. Its American meanings seem to have
been influenced by the German Bumm and
bummeln.
In English usage bum is an impolite word for
the buttocks (A sorrel gelding with some white
hairs on his bum. Many a tatter’d rag hanging
over my bum).
bumblebee is the sole American form. In England
it is sometimes called a humblebee, not from
any humility but because of the humming sound
that it makes. The bum- of bumblebee is from
the booming sound that it makes, and since the
scientific name of the family is Bombidae, bumblebee
would seem the preference of lay and
learned alike.
bumper; fender. A bumper in its commonest use
in America now signifies a horizontal bar affixed
to the front or rear of an automobile to give
protection in collisions. In England this is called
a fender; whereas what the Americans call a
fender is called a wing. Americans and English
alike call a piece of timber or a bundle of rope
or the like, hung over the side of a vessel to
lessen shock or prevent chafing, a fender.