bumf

bumf
n
British
information on paper; forms, instruc-tions, brochures, etc., especially those considered unnecessary, annoying or in excessive quantity. This term is now an acceptable middle-class colloquialism although its origin is more vulgar. It derives from 'bum fodder', a pre-World War II public-school and armed-forces term for toilet paper. This was applied scornfully in wartime to excessive bureaucratic paperwork. In Australia the usage is sometimes extended to mean unnecessary or verbose speech. The phrase 'bum fodder' in full is now obsolete, but was used from the 17th century to refer to waste paper.
► A glimpse of the unpestered life you lead at Cap Ferrat, deluged with fan mail, be-sieged by the press, inundated with bumpf of one sort or another.' (Ian Fleming in a letter to Somerset Maugham, quoted in John Pearson's bi-ography, 1966)

Contemporary slang . 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • bumf — bumph [bʌmf] n [U] BrE informal boring written information that you have to read ▪ I got loads of bumf about the introduction of the Euro …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • bumf — or bumph [bumf] n. [contr. < bumfodder, lit., toilet paper < BUM2 + FODDER] [Brit. Slang] official documents, regarded disparagingly …   English World dictionary

  • bumf — /bumf/, n. Brit. 1. Slang. toilet paper. 2. memoranda, official notices, or the like. [1885 90; short for bumfodder. See BUM2, FODDER1] * * * …   Universalium

  • bumf — papers, paperwork, 1889, British schoolboy slang, originally toilet paper, from bum fodder …   Etymology dictionary

  • bumf — (also bumph) ► NOUN informal, chiefly Brit. 1) useless or tedious printed information. 2) dated toilet paper. ORIGIN abbreviation of slang bum fodder, in the same sense …   English terms dictionary

  • bùmf — in búmf medm. (ȕ; ȗ) posnema močen pok, glas pri padcu, udarcu: bumf! je počilo; mladinska brigada pozdravi: horuk, horuk, bumf / sname torbo in bumf v kot …   Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika

  • bumf — [[t]bʌ̱mf[/t]] also bumph N UNCOUNT Bumf consists of documents containing information which you may not need or find interesting. [BRIT, INFORMAL] The waste paper basket was full of bumf, trivial letters and advertising circulars …   English dictionary

  • bumf — also bumph noun Etymology: from bumf toilet paper, short for bumfodder, from 1bum + fodder Date: circa 1889 chiefly British paperwork …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • bumf — noun /bʌmf/ Useless papers; now especially official documents, standardized forms, sales and marketing print material etc. And as for the limited warnings on documents and signs – we are so used to reading this bumf we fail to realise when they… …   Wiktionary

  • bumf — [20] The earliest, literal, but now long discontinued sense of bumf is ‘toilet paper’ (first recorded in 1889), which does much to elucidate its origin: it is short for bum fodder. The element of contempt is carried over into its modern meaning,… …   The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

  • bumf — noun (U) BrE informal boring written information that you have to read: I got a load of bumf from the gas board …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

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