Small raised areas on a surface, or collisions with something solid. Can also refer to temporary swellings on the body.
From Middle English 'bumpen' meaning 'to strike,' possibly imitative of the sound of collision. The noun form developed in the 16th century, first meaning the act of striking, then the resulting raised mark or swelling.
The word's onomatopoetic origins make it almost universally recognizable across languages - most cultures have similar-sounding words for collision sounds. In phrenology, a discredited 19th-century pseudoscience, people believed they could read personality traits from 'bumps' on the skull.
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