Sam
[h]Posted - 07 Nov 2007 : 23:02:58[/h]Any one know the origin of the verb stump in the folloewing sense. 20: to nonplus, embarrass, or render completely at a loss.
paulwiggins
STUMP verb: (originally U.S.): To cause to be at a loss; to confront with an insuperable difficulty; to nonplus. [The primary reference was probably to the obstruction caused by stumps in ploughing imperfectly cleared land.]<1807 “They happened to run their heads full butt against a new reading. Now this was a STUMPER.”—‘Salmagundi’ (New York), 20 March, page 121>
<1833 I'm afraid we'll git a stumper..one of these days, that will nock us all into kindlin-wood.”—‘Letters of J. Downing (1835)’ (Seba Smith), xxii. page 126>
<1872 “The American . . . speaks of a conclusive argument, or a difficult problem: ‘That is a STUMPER.’”—‘Americanisms’ by Schele de Vere, page 187>
<1899 “We always noticed, at arithmetic times, that Browne, if he got a stumper, would put up the lid of his private desk and hide behind it.”—‘ The Human Boy’ by E. Phillpotts, vi. page 137>
<1833 “My Good Old Friend,—I'm STUMPED. I jest got a letter from the Gineral [etc.].” Ibid. —“ This STUMPS me considerable.”—‘Letters of J. Downing [Seba Smith]’ (1835), page 80 & xxxii. page 218>>
<1840 “Bein' stumpt is a sure mark of a fool. The only folks among us that's ever nonplushed, is them just caught in the woods.”—‘The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville’(1848) by Haliburton, Series III. xvi, page 132>
<1842 “He had been amazed or, to use a Western phrase, he had been ‘stumped’ at the position occupied within these last few days by [etc.].”—‘Congressional Globe,’ 29 January, page 183/1>
<1854 “That beastly Euclid altogether STUMPS me.”—‘Verdant Green’ by C. Bede, II. xi>
STUB: In to stub (one's) toe, Also figurativley. Formerly chiefly U.S.<1828 “STUMP: To strike any thing fixed and hard with the toe. [Vulgar]”—‘An American Dictionary of the English Language’ by Noah Webster>
<1837 “. . .Jonathan STUMPED HIS TOE and fell to the ground, and before the old man could ‘take up,’ he stumbled over Jonathan, and fell sprawling in a mud hole.”—‘Huron Reflector’ (Norwalk, Ohio), 25 July, page 4>
<1857 “Like the boy that STUMPED HIS TOE . . . it hurt too bad to laugh.”—said by Lincoln in ‘Life of Abraham Lincoln’ (1927) by H. Binns, page 181>
<1876 “. . .he had, in time, explored the realms of knowledge to their fullest frontier, and yet when he STUMPED HIS TOE getting out of a bath-tub, no man could skip round on one leg more grotesquely or howl louder than he could.’—‘Reno Evening Gazette’ (Nevada), 13 May, page 2>
<1891 “Mus' be powerful sorrowful ter set at home an’ shed tears lest he mought her STUMPED HIS TOE on the road.”—“Harper’s Magazine,” February, page 364/2>
<1930 “. . . when Hauver fell he thought he had STUMPED HIS TOE . . . and he did not know he was shot until someone hollered Hauver is shot.”—‘Frederick Post (Maryland), 22 February, page 4>
<1957 “There were eight close ones this time. But all STUMPED THEIR TOE on the word HEN . . . in last Saturday morning’s puzzle.”—‘Lima News’ (Ohio), 28 June, page 1>
<1991 “. . . I thought at first that I had ‘STUMPED MY TOE,’ but it hurt like the dickens and continued to hurt like the dickens until I finally went to see Dr. Hartley, . . . :—‘Deer Park Broadcaster,’ 21 August, page 4>
<2005 “. . . he felt like ‘the boy who stumped his toe. I am too big to cry and too badly hurt to laugh.’”— ‘U.S. News & World Report,’ 21 February>
(Oxford English Dictionary and archived sources)<1848 “‘To STUB ONE’S TOE’, is to strike it against anything in walking or running; an expression often used by boys and others who go barefoot.”—‘Dictionary of Americanisms’ by Bartlett, page 339>
<circa 1850 “When I STUBBED MY TOES.”—Dow, Jr. in ‘Yankee Humanity’ (1853) by Jerdan, page 58>
<1897 “You are rather liable to what Captain Eversfield graphically describes as ‘STUB YOUR TOE’ against lava-like rock.”—‘Travels in West Africa’ by M. Kingsley, page 114>
<1906 “The formation of a virulent ulcer every time a person STUBBED A TOE or barked a shin.”—‘Natives of British Central Africa’ by A. Werner, vi. page 140>
<1957 “At a time when the Middle East has become more of a happy hunting ground for Russians seeking friends and influence than ever before, it is on Turkey that they are always STUBBING THEIR TOE.’—‘Economist,’ 19 October, page 194.1> [[figurative usage]]
<1967 <The senator STUBBED HIS TOE just once, and Overbury has the goods on him.”— When the time comes to peddle them . . . knocking off Burden Day is easy.”—‘Boston Sunday Herald,’ (Show Guide), 7 May, page 17/2>
<1976 “It was a reputable organisation. At least, insofar as it hadn't STUBBED ITS CORPORATE TOES on, or interfered with, anything under the supervision of the superintendent's own bailiwick.”—‘I Know What its Like to Die’ by J. Ross, xix. page 126>
<1991 “Police, the public, local authorities and hospitals are all misusing the London Ambulance Service . . . Emergency ambulances have been dispatched to cases where a 26-year old did not know how to remove his new contact lenses, a patient had been bitten by a stag beetle, a man STUBBED HIS TOE and broke a nail and where a woman complained the strings had come off her tampon . . .”—‘The Independent’ (London), January>
<2007 “After several weeks of on-again, off-again promises of a top-secret briefing on the alleged role of Iranian agents in the nightmarish violence of Iraq, U.S. military officials finally decided to deliver the goods in a secret briefing to reporters in Baghdad-and promptly STUBBED THEIR TOE.”—‘U.S. News & World Report,’ 5 March>