bump·kin1 
(b
mp
k
n, b
m
-)
KEY NOUN: - An awkward, unsophisticated person; a yokel.
ETYMOLOGY:Perhaps from Flemish
boomken,
shrub, diminutive of
boom,
tree; see
bheu
- in Indo-European roots, or from Middle Dutch
bommekijn, diminutive of
bomme,
barrelWORD HISTORY: The term
bumpkin may at one time have been directed at an entire people rather than that segment of the population living in a rural area. The first recorded appearance of the word in 1570 is glossed by the Latin word
Batavus, "Dutchman," making plausible the suggestion that
bumpkin may come from either the Middle Dutch word
bommekijn, "little barrel," or the Flemish word
boomken, "shrub." The connection would be between a squat object and the short rotund figure of the Dutchman in the popular imagination. Any bumpkin would surely prefer this etymology to the suggestion that
bumpkin is a derivative of
bum, "the rear end."
