bummer

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌ.mɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ʌmə(ɹ)

From German Bummler (“a drifter, a stroller, a rambler, a loiterer, a laggard”), from bummeln (“loaf, loiter, stroll, ramble”).

bummer (plural bummers)

1. (obsolete, historical) A forager, especially in Sherman's March to the Sea of November to December 1864.
2. (US, slang, dated) An idle, worthless fellow, without any visible means of support; a dissipated sponger.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:scrounger

   • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXVIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) , London: Chatto & Windus, , →OCLC:

     “If I get away I sha’n’t be here,” I says, “to prove these rapscallions ain’t your uncles, and I couldn’t do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that’s all, though that’s worth something.

3. A lamb (typically the smallest of a multiple birth) which has been abandoned by its mother or orphaned, and as a consequence is raised in part or in whole by humans.

• bum (noun)

From bum (“make unhappy”) +‎ -er (agent noun suffix), originally US drug slang.

bummer (plural bummers)

1. (colloquial) A disappointment, a pity, a shame.

   That's a total bummer.

   • 1977, “Peaches”, in Rattus Norvegicus, performed by The Stranglers:

     Looks like I'm gonna be stuck here the whole summer / Well what a bummer / I can think of a lot worse places to be

2. (slang, dated, drug use) A psychedelic crisis; hallucinogenic drug use producing undesirable dysphoric psychological effects, most often fear, paranoia, and especially horrifying hallucinations; a bad trip.
   • 2000, “Phase I”, in Voyage 34: The Complete Trip, performed by Porcupine Tree:

     This young man never had a bummer in some 33 LSD trips. Every one of the them was a delight—everything under control. He needed only to snap his fingers, and down he came, anytime. But on Voyage 34, he finally met himself coming down an up staircase, and the encounter was crushing.

• bum out

• bad trip
• psychedelic crisis

bummer

1. (colloquial) Exclamation of annoyance or frustration at a bummer (disappointment).

From bum (“engage in anal sex”) +‎ -er (agent noun suffix).

bummer (plural bummers)

1. (UK, slang, derogatory, offensive) A gay man.
   • Matt (interviewee) quoted in 2021, Laura Dixon, Gender, Sexuality and National Identity in the Lives of British Lifestyle Migrants in Spain (page 108)

     You know, the kind of guy who would, if he wasn't gay, probably be shouting ‘Oi, gay boy!’ or ‘You bummer!’ or even ‘Oi, paki!’ or what have you. They're not enlightened.

From bum +‎ -er (comparative suffix).

bummer

1. comparative form of bum: more bum

• Jonathon Green (2024) “bummer n.² (sodomite)”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• Jonathon Green (2024) “bummer n.³ (tramp)”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• Jonathon Green (2024) “bummer n.⁴ (bummer trip)”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Borrowed from English bum (“to ask for something for free”), from bum (“homeless person”), a back-formation from (now dated) bummer (“idle person”), from German Bummler (“loafer”), from bummeln (“to loaf”).

• IPA^(key): /bɔ.me/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

bummer

1. (transitive, North America, slang) to bum (ask for something for free)

   Je peux-tu te bummer une cig ?

   Can I bum you a cig?