# Origin of the Bump and Grind **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221 "2013-02-13T21:37:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/1 "2013-02-13T21:37:43Z")
Ok, so this might be a tough one but I was recently reading the excellent book “Confederacy of Dunces” for the first time and the phrase “bumped and ground” was used in a description of a character’s attempt at doing an erotic dance. Here is the specific passage: > [@](#): > > The cockatoo was placed in the lowest ring, and with beak and claw began to climb up to the next highest ring. Darlene **bumped and ground** around the pole in a sort of orgiastic frenzy until the bird was on a level with her waist. Then she offered the bird the ring sewed inthe side of her gown. He grabbed at it with his beak and the gown popped open. Now, being very familiar with the current usage of “bump & grind” to refer to an overly sexual type of dance (thanks R. Kelly!), the use of similar terms in the book made me curious as to the origin of the phrase. The book itself was written in the mid-60’s (though not published until 1980) but I doubt it was the first to describe a dance in this way. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/2 "2013-02-13T21:49:21Z")
I don’t know, I would place it in 20th century, likely between wars, but maybe later. Certainly no later than 1950. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/3 "2013-02-13T21:51:34Z")
It’s how a strip tease works - the bump is the forward thrust of the hips (less so the backward thrust of buttocks), the grind the rotation of the hips, thus the bump and grind. Strip joints are sometimes Before my time called grindhouses. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/4 "2013-02-13T21:56:24Z")
There is a [reference here to 1940](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bump&allowed_in_frame=0), but nothing to point to. Other references online by strippers and musicians talked about the 1930s and 1940s, but they were recent references, nothing from the time period. The phrase was well known as referring to an erotic dance in the 1960s from my own memory. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/5 "2013-02-14T00:33:24Z")
The use of the words _bump_ and _grind_ separately to indicate sexual suggestive acts both go back to the 1600’s. They don’t seem to come together until the 1930s in the US. As said, stripper, burlesque acts. ---
**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:** [February 14, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/6 "2013-02-14T00:36:35Z")
The 1940 reference is apparently to [American Mercury magazine](http://books.google.com/books?id=JUYEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA494&dq=%22bump+and+grind%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DyccUaSEDfCo0AHxr4GgDg&ved=0CIsBEOgBMBE#v=onepage&q=%22bump%20and%20grind%22&f=false), mentioning “the best bump and grind _artiste_ in burleycue show business.” From context, it’s apparent that everyone was supposed to be familiar with the phrase. I don’t see an earlier mention in Google Books, but what’s interesting is that bump and grind is a much older expression commonly applied to ships. > [@](#): > > The Sabbath recorder - Volume 93 - Page 2 > > [The Sabbath Recorder - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=4yVEAAAAYAAJ) > American Sabbath Tract Society - 1922 - Snippet view - More editions > Every now and then we could feel the bump and grind of the boat’s bottom sliding over rocks. > > The Worst Journey in the World - Page 591 > > [books.google.com/books?isbn=0760757593](http://books.google.com/books?isbn=0760757593) > Apsley Cherry-Garrard - 1922 - Preview - More editions > ahead, stop (to the engine-room) — bump and grind for a bit — then slow astern, stop — slow ahead again, and so on, until at 7 p.m., after one real big bump which brought the dinner some inches off the table, Cheetham brought us out into … > > A Rafting on the Mississip’ - Page 118 > > [books.google.com/books?isbn=0816639426](http://books.google.com/books?isbn=0816639426) > Charles Edward Russell - 1928 - Preview - More editions > The Nominee ran Paint Rock and had to bump and grind her way through. When she emerged at the lower end the Franklin was two miles ahead. She had to take on wood at Guttenberg, and the excited passengers were sure that the delay .. > > Munsey’s magazine - Volume 30 - Page 55 > > [Munsey's Magazine - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=lcnNAAAAMAAJ) > 1904 - Read - More editions > Curtice could see nothing of it, but he heard the boat draw alongside and bump and grind against the grating. Out of the obscurity issued murmurous argument, while two persons negotiated the ascent. Some one swore luridly, following his … Other authors use the phrase for trucks, cars, railroads, and icebergs. Grindhouse doesn’t appear until long after 1940, so it’s likely that the older, common descriptive phrase was used facetiously for the movements of burleycue dancers. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/7 "2013-02-14T15:19:24Z")
No reason for me to be right, but in the maritime examples above, I see it simply as two separate actions described, not as a phrase describing a specific action IOW it’s _bump_ and _grind_ not _bump and grind_. ---
**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:** [February 14, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/8 "2013-02-14T16:07:58Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > No reason for me to be right, but in the maritime examples above, I see it simply as two separate actions described, not as a phrase describing a specific action IOW it’s _bump_ and _grind_ not _bump and grind_. The burleycue bump and grind are two different actions. Here’s a how to bump and grind video that states the the bumps are the sudden lateral movements of the hips while the grind is the circular motion of the pelvis. Spoiler box since even this PG version is probably not good work viewing. A non-PG version might substitute a pelvic thrust but that’s still combining separate motions. [http://www.howcast.com/videos/507583-How-to-Bump-and-Grind-like-a-Burlesque-Dancer-How-to-Dance-Burlesque](http://www.howcast.com/videos/507583-How-to-Bump-and-Grind-like-a-Burlesque-Dancer-How-to-Dance-Burlesque) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/9 "2013-02-14T16:28:27Z")
Thank you Exapno. Even the modern discussions made it sound like ‘bump and grind’ was quite well established in the early days of burlesque. Mention of the bumps, but not the grinds was in the stageplay Gypsy: A Musical Fable, You Gotta Have a Gimmick, carried over into the later film. That’s 1959, not really applicable, but I’ll throw in a gratuitous link to one of the few things that would get me to a Broadway show. Not NSFW for some maybe: [You Gotta Have a Gimmick](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFRSawe33sA)from the 1962 movie Gypsy ---
**Author:** ![l0k1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@l0k1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/l0k1)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/10 "2013-02-14T16:54:41Z")
The bump & grind as a dance style has its origins as a vernacular version of belly dancing, made popular in the US by a belly dancing exhibit at the 1893 World’s Fair. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/11 "2013-02-14T19:58:13Z")
“The burleycue bump and grind are two different actions” Oh thanks - you mean as I explained in detail in post #3. in the post you responded to, I was positing that - well, I already posited what I was positing. To see why your post is a non sequitor, re-read post #7. ---
**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:** [February 14, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/12 "2013-02-14T20:43:52Z")
You’re right, I had forgotten your post up there. I apologize. I’m still mystified how you manage to turn either usage into one thing instead of two. If I had remembered that post, though, I would have made this correction earlier. Grindhouse in print doesn’t appear until about 1960, where it refers to a type of movie theater or movie genre just as it does today. I don’t think strip joints were ever commonly called grindhouses. The only evidence I have in favor comes from the 1943 film _Lady of Burlesque_, based on Gyspy Rose Lee’s novel _The G-String Murders_. The burlesque theater in the movie is referred to as a grindhouse. There’s a huge difference between a burlesque theater and a strip joint as we know them today. Additionally, the burlesque theaters often showed movies between performances to give them time to rest, so a grindhouse may even then be the movie aspect rather than the stripper aspect, or more probably both. That’s assuming that Hollywood got the slang right. That’s a low-profit bet. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/13 "2013-02-14T21:42:13Z")
“I’m still mystified how you manage to turn either usage into one thing instead of two.” By the sound to my ear for one. But I am mystified myself which is why I satted plainly in opening that there was no reason why I should be right in my interpretation. So a stripper refers to a burlesque house as a grindhouse - it is not your contention that Burlesque house in the 40s did not include strippers is it? That it was used in such manner in popular media seems to support that it was not an esoteric or unknown term. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/14 "2013-02-14T21:48:58Z")
I thought I put this in my last post re usage as one thing. Because it is one thing in stripping. Strippers do a bump and grind, not a bump to the exclusion of the grind or vice versa. A ship can bump into a rock and then one subsequently hears the ship grinding along. However a ship can also bump into a rock and stay impaled or grounded (not grinded). Likewise one may hear the hull grinding over a sand bar with no real bump preceding. Again, if you are watching a stripper you are going to see bump and grind not one or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/15 "2013-02-14T22:02:31Z")
[Life Magazine, April 14, 1941](http://books.google.com/books?id=qEwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA110&dq=%22bump+and+grind%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CF4dUcTkBIO69gSokoHgCg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22bump%20and%20grind%22&f=false) > [@](#): > > other hula addicts **bump and grind** in a confusion of skin and straw. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/16 "2013-02-14T22:12:26Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > No reason for me to be right, but in the maritime examples above, I see it simply as two separate actions described, not as a phrase describing a specific action IOW it’s _bump_ and _grind_ not _bump and grind_. If you’ve ever run aground, you’d know that the two tend to go together – just as in burlesque. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/17 "2013-02-14T22:34:26Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > I thought I put this in my last post re usage as one thing. > > Because it is one thing in stripping. Strippers do a bump and grind, not a bump to the exclusion of the grind or vice versa. > > A ship can bump into a rock and then one subsequently hears the ship grinding along. However a ship can also bump into a rock and stay impaled or grounded (not grinded). Likewise one may hear the hull grinding over a sand bar with no real bump preceding. > > Again, if you are watching a stripper you are going to see bump and grind not one or the other. They can do them seperately, and exclusively. The phrase as a whole, bump and grind, refers to the fact that both moves are usually included in a stripper’s routine, but each one is a distinctive move by itself as well. ---
**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:** [February 14, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/18 "2013-02-14T22:42:18Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > So a stripper refers to a burlesque house as a grindhouse - it is not your contention that Burlesque house in the 40s did not include strippers is it? That it was used in such manner in popular media seems to support that it was not an esoteric or unknown term. My contention is that a grindhouse is not a strip joint. [Burlesque](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlesque) is a larger and far more encompassing term of art than strip shows. The evolution - or devolution - of burlesque to come to mean only a strip show with comic intervals and later on only the strip show itself is even more complicated than that short page indicates. But neither grindhouse nor grind show was ever commonly used to mean burlesque at any time. > [@FrankJBN](#): > > Because it is one thing in stripping. Strippers do a bump and grind, not a bump to the exclusion of the grind or vice versa. Strippers make all sorts of moves. They can do bumps without grinds and vice versa. They can do bumps with other moves or grinds with other moves. When you follow one with the other you get a bump and grind. It’s like shave and a haircut. Two things that can be separate but are better when one is combined with the other. ---
**Author:** ![icowrich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e4f/32.png) [@icowrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icowrich)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/19 "2018-04-08T21:53:41Z")
It seems to me that any individual mention of the words “bump and grind” could be a coincidental pairing of two words that aren’t that unusual. If I were going to find the beginning of a memetic phrase, I wouldn’t look for an individual use so much as a grouping of the same usage in time. Therefore, it is best to start with Google N-Grams, which doesn’t show a repetitive thread of that phrase until 1957: > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22bump%2Band%2Bgrind%22&year_start=1950&year_end=2018&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2C%22%20bump%20and%20grind%20%22%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer So, even though there might be an article that, at some point, says “bump and grind,” unless it says “the kids are saying bump and grind,” I wouldn’t necessarily view that as the beginning of the phrase. I would look for articles or song lyrics specifically in 1957 to find the beginning of this one. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2018, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-bump-and-grind/650221/20 "2018-04-08T23:31:07Z")
Your link doesn’t show anything because you put quotes around “bump and grind” so ngrams looks for the phrase with quotes. That’s different from almost every other search engine, including Google. You also start the search with 1950, which is way too late. But the 1940 and 1941 links in posts #6 and #15 are to Google Books, so it’s certain that the phrase is older than 1957. And references from the 1950s are plentiful. Love and Mrs. Candy - Page 19 > **[Love and Mrs. Candy](https://books.google.com/books?id=juEIAQAAIAAJ)** Robert Tallant - 1953 - ‎Snippet view “Henry, why don’t you get Noonie Belle an aspirin to take with her beer,” she suggested. “I don’t want no aspirin,” said Noonie Belle. “My head don’t hurt. Look, I gotta idea. Do you think Philandra Fazende would give me some lessons? I mean in dancing and stuff like that. When I met her on Cairo Street one day she told me how she used to be a big star.” “Miss Fazende has imagination,” said Mrs. Candy quietly. “I can do a **bump and grind** ,” said Noonie Belle, "and I can do cartwheels. Saturday Review - Volume 36 - Page 28 > **[Saturday Review](https://books.google.com/books?id=9CFVAAAAYAAJ)** 1953 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions … was evidently not fully sure that Miss Monroe and Miss Russell could dance — really dance, that is — so he has mainly kept them to burlesque-type routines. To learn these, the vital statistics continue to inform us, the girls were sent to some downtown Los Angeles burlesque houses to pick up what pointers were needed. There they quickly learned how to parade, **bump, and grind**. However, censorship codes protect us from the true parade, bump, and grind of the burlesque show. Fortnight: The Newsmagazine of California - Volumes 10-11 > **[Fortnight](https://books.google.com/books?id=ukc7AQAAIAAJ)** 1951 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions The B\*\*ump and Grind Business \*\*First of a Series Explaining Why Burlesque Is Becoming Los Angeles’ Major Entertainment CIVIC AFFAIRS The Europeans By Clement Reicher PEOPLE BUSINESS, INDUSTRY. Only 18 short months ago there was one burlesque theatre in Los Angeles. At last count there were three theatres. 23 nightclubs in the County featuring strip shows and new shows mushrooming each week. While the more sedate members of show business refer to this trend … Time - Page 34 > **[Time](https://books.google.com/books?id=Qf7VAAAAMAAJ)** Briton Hadden, ‎Henry Robinson Luce - 1952 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions It was heaped high with a weird mixture of pornography, childishness and sentimentality — mild glamour shots like those advertising Chicago burlesque bars: Kodachrome nudes complete with pocket viewers; trick photographs that could be squeezed to make a fan dancer **bump and grind**. There were also pictures of Queen Narriman as a bride. Near the royal bed stood two stacks of well-thumbed U.S. comics. In the dressing. room were 100 suits. 50 canes. 75 pairs of binoculars and …