Word: bottom Part of Speech: noun Etymology: PIE word *bʰudʰmḗn Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ-? Proto-Indo-European *-mḗn Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn Proto-Germanic *butmaz Proto-West Germanic *botm Old English botm Middle English botme English bottom From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-West Germanic *butm, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz, *budmaz (“bottom; ground”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”). Cognates Cognate with Yola bothom, bottom (“bottom”), Saterland Frisian Boudem (“floor; ground”), West Frisian boaiem (“floor; ground”), Dutch bodem, boom, boôm (“bottom; ground, soil”), German Boden (“floor; ground; soil”), Limburgish baom (“bottom; ground, soil”), Luxembourgish Buedem (“bottom; earth, soil”), Vilamovian bödum (“bottom; ground”), Danish bund (“bottom”), Elfdalian buottn (“bottom”), Faroese botnur (“bottom”), Icelandic and Norwegian Nynorsk botn (“bottom”), Norwegian Bokmål botn, bunn (“bottom”), Swedish botten (“bottom”); also Irish and Scottish Gaelic bonn (“base, bottom; sole (of foot)”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) (whence fund, via French), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of a cup or jar; the bottom of the sea; butt of a tree”), Albanian buzë (“rocky chasm”), Armenian անդունդ (andund), անդունդք (andundkʻ, “abyss, chasm”), Northern Kurdish bin (“bottom”), Persian بن (bon, “bottom”), Sanskrit बुध्न (budhna, “bottom”). The noun sense “posterior of a person” is first attested in 1794; the verb sense “to reach the bottom of” is first attested in 1808. The term bottom dollar (“the last dollar one has”) is first attested in 1882. Pronunciation: /ˈbɒt.əm/, /ˈbɑ.təm/, [ˈbɑ.ɾəm], /ˈbɔt.əm/, [ˈbɔ̟t.əm] 1. The lowest part of anything. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: barrels with the bottoms knocked out Example: a great ship’s kettle of iron, with the bottom knocked out 2. The lowest part of anything. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The Red Sox are at the bottom again. 3. The lowest part of anything. Labels: countable, often, plural, uncountable Example: There’s a hole in her pyjama bottoms. 4. The lowest part of anything. Labels: countable, figuratively, often, uncountable Example: In Ireland, where 14.5% of the population are jobless, emigration has climbed steadily since 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the bottom fell out of the Irish housing market. In the 12 months to April this year, 40,200 Irish passport-holders left, up from 27,700 the previous year, according to the central statistics office. Irish nationals were by far the largest constituent group among emigrants, at almost 53%. 5. The lowest part of anything. Labels: countable, uncountable 6. The lowest part of anything. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs 7. The lowest part of anything. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: a soda and a bottom of brandy 8. The lowest part of anything. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: single-bottom plow Example: three-bottom plow 9. The remotest or innermost part of something. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Near-synonym: fundus (anatomical) Example: There’s a fairy at the bottom of my garden. 10. The fundamental part; a basic aspect. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: get to the bottom of it Example: Thereupon Billali did a curious thing. Down he went, that venerable-looking old gentleman - for Billali is a gentleman at the bottom - down on to his hands and knees, and in this undignified position, with his long white beard trailing on the ground, he began to creep into the apartment beyond. 11. Low-lying land; a valley or hollow. Labels: US, countable, uncountable Example: Where shall we go for a walk? How about Ashcombe Bottom? Example: The horses staled in a small brook that runs in a bottom, betwixt two hills. 12. Low-lying land near a river with alluvial soil. Labels: countable, plural-normally, uncountable 13. The buttocks or anus. Labels: countable, euphemistic, uncountable Example: Calvin, if you shoot that paper clip at me, I'll get your bottom hauled to the principal's office so fast you'll think you were in a time warp!! 14. The bed of a body of water. Labels: countable, uncountable 15. An abyss. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: In the Carpathian Bottom makes abode / The Shepherd of the Seas, a Prophet and a God 16. A cargo vessel, a ship. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: We sail in leaky bottoms and on great and perilous waters; [...] 17. Certain parts of a vessel, particularly the cargo hold or the portion of the ship that is always underwater. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: My ventures are not in one bottom trusted. Example: Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped. 18. A person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse. Labels: countable, slang Example: James and Lukas would make a great couple if they weren't both bottoms. 19. A person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse. Labels: broadly, colloquial, countable, slang Example: Since what I wanted to do was be a bottom, a masochist, I had to learn that you could do it and be safe, that you could do it and not sign your life away, that you could do it by agreement, and that it was still fun. 20. Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment. Labels: UK, slang, uncountable Example: lack bottom 21. Power of endurance. Labels: dated, uncountable Example: This was why Dee had always ridden a buckskin; a man following his kind of trails needed a horse with bottom, and a line-back like this one never wore out. 22. A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: the [silk]worms will fasten themselves, and make their bottoms, which in about fourteen days are finished. 23. A trundle or spindle of thread. Labels: countable, rare, uncountable Example: Edward Hoby of Bisham in Berkshire, Esq; Or, a Fess, Sable, between three Hobby-Hawks, proper; otherwise, Azure, three Bottoms in Fess, Gules. Example: BOTTOM, a trundle or quill of gold thread. See TRUNDLE. Argent three bottoms, in fess gules, the thread or; name, Hoby, of Badland. 24. Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable 25. Ellipsis of bottom quark. Labels: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, particle, uncountable