Word Origin & History
bump1610s, verb and noun, perhaps from Scandinavian, probably echoic, original sense was "hitting" then of "swelling from being hit." Also has a long association with obsolete bum "to make a booming noise," which perhaps influenced surviving senses like bumper crop, for something full to the brim. To bump
EXPANDinto "meet" is from 1880s; to bump off "kill" is 1908 in underworld slang.
COLLAPSE