Word: bottom Part of Speech: verb 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. To furnish (something) with a bottom. Labels: transitive Example: to bottom a chair 2. To pour spirits into (a glass to be topped up with soda water). Labels: transitive Example: We shall bid that thoughtful waiter place beside him, near and handy, / Large supplies of soda water, tumblers bottomed well with brandy, […] 3. To wind (like a ball of thread etc.). Labels: obsolete Example: As you vnwinde her loue from him, / Lest it should rauel and be good to none, / You must prouide to bottome it on me. 4. To establish or found (something) on or upon. Labels: transitive Example: But an absurd opinion concerning the king’s hereditary right to the crown does not prejudice one that is rational, and bottomed upon solid principles of law and policy. Example: those false and deceiving grounds upon which many bottom their eternal state 5. To lie on the bottom of; to underlie, to lie beneath. Labels: transitive Example: My first night in America was spent in a motel with plywood over its windows, its pool bottomed with garbage sacks. 6. To be based or grounded. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: c. 1703, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman Find out upon what foundation any proposition advanced bottoms'. 7. To reach or strike against the bottom of something, so as to impede free action. Labels: intransitive Example: allowance at the bottom of blind bores for the chamfered tip of the reamer will obviate additional operations with shouldering or bottoming reamers to completely finish the entire length of a hole. 8. To reach the bottom of something. Labels: transitive Example: Squeaker's dog sniffed and barked joyfully around them till his licking efforts to bottom a salmon tin sent him careering in a muzzled frenzy, that caused the younger woman's thick lips to part grinningly till he came too close. 9. To fall to the lowest point. Example: The Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed on September 24, 2001. The CRB Index bottomed on October 24. 10. To be the submissive partner in a BDSM relationship. Labels: dated, intransitive 11. To take on the receptive role during intercourse. Labels: intransitive Example: I've never bottomed in my life. Example: Daw hadn’t bottomed in a long time. He hadn’t had sex in a year.