bottom
Part of speech: verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: BDSM
engineering
lifestyle
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sexuality
Etymology: PIE word
 *bʰudʰmḗn
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- ~ *dʰubʰ-
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.
Inflected forms:
form: bottoms
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: bottoming
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: bottomed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: bottomed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: botton
pos: verb
tags: alternative
dialectal
form: bottome
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: buttom
pos: verb
tags: alternative
misspelling
form: botton
pos: adj
tags: alternative
dialectal
form: bottome
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: buttom
pos: adj
tags: alternative
misspelling
Senses:
gloss: To furnish (something) with a bottom.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to bottom a chair
gloss: To pour spirits into (a glass to be topped up with soda water).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We shall bid that thoughtful waiter place beside him, near and handy, / Large supplies of soda water, tumblers bottomed well with brandy, […]
gloss: To wind (like a ball of thread etc.).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: As you vnwinde her loue from him, / Lest it should rauel and be good to none, / You must prouide to bottome it on me.
gloss: To establish or found (something) on or upon.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
those false and deceiving grounds upon which many bottom their eternal state
Moreover, the Supreme Court has held that the President must obey outstanding executive orders, even when bottomed on the Constitution, until they are revoked.
gloss: To lie on the bottom of; to underlie, to lie beneath.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: My first night in America was spent in a motel with plywood over its windows, its pool bottomed with garbage sacks.
gloss: To be based or grounded.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: c. 1703, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman
Find out upon what foundation any proposition advanced bottoms'.
gloss: To reach or strike against the bottom of something, so as to impede free action.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To reach the bottom of something.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To fall to the lowest point.
pos: verb
examples: The Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed on September 24, 2001. The CRB Index bottomed on October 24.
gloss: To be the submissive partner in a BDSM relationship.
pos: verb
tags: dated
intransitive
gloss: To take on the receptive role during intercourse.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I've never bottomed in my life.
Daw hadn’t bottomed in a long time. He hadn’t had sex in a year.
gloss: The lowest or last place or position.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: Those files should go on the bottom shelf.
gloss: Relating to the genitals.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: bottom dysphoria
bottom surgery
Related words: bottommost
Derived words: bottom out
rebottom
bottom dysphoria
bottom surgeon
bottom surgery
Translations: