# Chump etymology

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chump-etymology/413506>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 28, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chump-etymology/413506 "2007-07-28T18:16:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chump-etymology/413506/1 "2007-07-28T18:16:57Z")

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What is the origin of ‘chump’?

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**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chump-etymology/413506/2 "2007-07-28T18:20:41Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> 1703, “short, thick lump of wood,” akin to O.N. kumba “block of wood.” Meaning “blockhead” is first attested 1883.

[Online Etymology Dictionary](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=chump)

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chump-etymology/413506/3 "2007-07-28T18:24:56Z")

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Huh. My pre-adolescent slang was almost 270 years old.

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chump-etymology/413506/4 "2007-07-28T21:29:18Z")

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Since I bet somebody will now want to know about chump change:

[http://www.word-detective.com/090304.html#chump%20change](http://www.word-detective.com/090304.html#chump%20change)

> [@](#):
>
> “Chump” first appeared in English in the early 1700s meaning “lump of wood” (possibly from a melding of “chunk” and “lump”), and by the late 1880s had acquired its modern derogatory meaning of “blockhead” or “fool.” The term “chump change” seems to have first appeared in the African-American community in the late 1960s with the meaning of “small change, a negligible amount of money.” The sense of the term is “an amount of money only a chump would value; a trivial amount,” as opposed to larger amounts of “real money.”