"Bum" struck me as a Britishism until I remembered that in the architects' (Gruen Assoc, as in Victor Gruen) office I worked in LA starting in 1970, they referred to rolls of yellow tracing/sketch paper as "bum wad." On the other hand, my boss had come from Canada and they had a pretty international staff.  

Ralph






-----Original Message-----
From: Cuyler Page <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, Apr 2, 2011 2:43 am
Subject: [BP] bumf - 1889 useage


Somehow this seemed as though it should be familiar to the BP group, being from 1889 and all, but I have never run into it before.  
Cross Posted with apology and stripped of the mp3 pronounciation guide:
bumf 


MEANING:
noun: Unwanted or uninteresting printed matter such as governmental forms, legal documents, junk mail, promotional pamphlets, etc. 


ETYMOLOGY:
Short for bum fodder, slang for toilet paper. Earliest documented use: 1889. 


USAGE:
"A mortgage loan can generate 200 pages of bumf, most of it so boring and repetitious that no one has the energy or the time to read it all."
John Gilmour; Lenders Use The Hoover Principle; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jan 20, 2001. 


cp in bc
(Bunf Columbia)

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