bottom

English Online Dictionary. What means bottom‎? What does bottom mean?

English

Alternative forms

• botton (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-West Germanic *butm, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz, *budmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”). Cognate with Dutch bodem, German Boden, Icelandic botn, Danish bund; also Irish bonn (“sole (of foot)”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of a cup or jar”), Sanskrit बुध्न (budhna, “bottom”), Persian بن (bon, “bottom”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) (whence fund, via French).

The sense “posterior of a person” is first attested in 1794; the verb “to reach the bottom of” is first attested in 1808. bottom dollar (“the last dollar one has”) is from 1882.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɒ.təm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑ.təm/, [ˈbɑɾəm]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔ.təm/
• Rhymes: -ɒtəm
• Hyphenation: bot‧tom

Noun

bottom (countable and uncountable, plural bottoms)

2. The lowest part of anything.

   Hyponym: rock bottom

   Synonym: base

   Antonym: top

   1. The lowest or last position in a rank.
   2. (clothing) A garment worn to cover the body below the torso.

      Coordinate term: top

   3. (often figuratively) The lowest part of a container.
   4. Spirits poured into a glass before adding soda water.
   5. (baseball) The second half of an inning, the home team's turn at bat.
   6. (music) The bass or baritone instruments of a band.

3. The remotest or innermost part of something.

4. The fundamental part; a basic aspect.
5. (now chiefly US) Low-lying land; a valley or hollow.
6. (usually in the plural) Low-lying land near a river with alluvial soil.

   Synonym: bottomland

8. (euphemistic) The buttocks or anus. [1794]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks
10. The bed of a body of water.

    Synonym: bed

    Hyponym: seabed

11. An abyss.
12. (nautical) A cargo vessel, a ship.
13. (nautical) Certain parts of a vessel, particularly the cargo hold or the portion of the ship that is always underwater.
15. (countable, BDSM) A submissive partner in a sadomasochistic relationship.

    Synonyms: sub, submissive

    Coordinate terms: top, dom

    1. (countable, loosely, by extension) A submissive partner in a sexual relationship.
17. (countable, slang, especially LGBTQ slang) A person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse.

    Synonyms: catcher, pathic, (South Asia) zenana

    Hypernym: doee

    Hyponym: power bottom

    Coordinate term: top

18. (uncountable, British, slang) Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.

19. (dated, uncountable) Power of endurance.
21. A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon.
22. (heraldry, rare) A trundle or spindle of thread.
23. (obsolete) Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.
25. (particle physics) Ellipsis of bottom quark.

    Hypernym: flavor

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Dutch: bottom
• → French: bottom
• → Portuguese: bottom

Translations

Verb

bottom (third-person singular simple present bottoms, present participle bottoming, simple past and past participle bottomed)

1. (transitive) To furnish (something) with a bottom. [from 16th c.]

2. (transitive) To pour spirits into (a glass to be topped up with soda water).
3. (obsolete) To wind (like a ball of thread etc.). [17th c.]
4. (transitive) To establish or found (something) on or upon. [from 17th c.]
   • 2001, United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Executive Orders and Presidential Directives, p.59:

     Moreover, the Supreme Court has held that the President must obey outstanding executive orders, even when bottomed on the Constitution, until they are revoked.

5. (transitive, chiefly in passive) To lie on the bottom of; to underlie, to lie beneath. [from 18th c.]
6. (obsolete, intransitive) To be based or grounded. [17th–19th c.]
   • 'c. 1703, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman

     Find out upon what foundation any proposition advanced bottoms.

7. (mechanics, intransitive) To reach or strike against the bottom of something, so as to impede free action. [from 19th c.]
8. (transitive) To reach the bottom of something.
9. To fall to the lowest point. [from 19th c.]
10. (BDSM, intransitive) To be the submissive partner in a BDSM relationship. [from 20th c.]
11. (gay slang, intransitive) To be anally penetrated in gay sex. [from 20th c.]

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

bottom (not comparable)

1. The lowest or last place or position.

2. (transgender) Relating to the genitals.

   Coordinate term: top

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• bottommost

Dutch

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bottom. Doublet of bodem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔ.təm/

Noun

bottom m (plural bottoms, diminutive bottommetje n)

1. (LGBTQ and BDSM slang) bottom (passive or submissive role in sexual relations)

   Coordinate term: top

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English bottom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bo.tɔm/

Adjective

bottom (plural bottoms)

1. (LGBTQ, slang) bottom (passive in role)

   Synonym: passif

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bottom.

Adjective

bottom (invariable, not comparable)

1. only used in quark bottom

Noun

bottom m (plural bottoms)

1. bottom quark (quark)

Yola

Noun

bottom

1. alternative form of bothom

References

• Kathleen A. Browne (1927) “THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD.”, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of lreland (Sixth Series)‎^[3], volume 17, number 2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 135