humpback

humpback

English

Ceramic figure by 17th century French artist Jacques Callot of a clown with a humpback

Alternative forms

• hump-back

Etymology

hump +‎ back

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhʌmpbæk/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

humpback (plural humpbacks)

1. A humped back (deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine).
   • 1691, John Dunton, A Voyage Round the World, London: Richard Newcome, Chapter 6, p. 122,

     […] the Stone in my Fathers Body was so immense, that I’ve wonder’d it did not bunch up behind, and make him have a Hump-back, or at least overpoise him in walking, and drag him backward with its incredible weight.

   • 1709, Richard Steele, The Tatler, No. 75, 1 October, 1709 in The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq., London, 1712, Volume 2, p. 166,

     In the Male Line, there happened an unlucky Accident in the Reign of Richard the Third; the eldest Son of Philip, then Chief of the Family, being born with an Hump-back and very high Nose.

   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter 11, in Rob Roy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, OCLC 82790126:

     Diana Vernon, the most beautiful creature I ever beheld, in love with him, the bandy-legged, bull-necked, limping scoundrel! Richard the Third in all but his hump-back!

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 63, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108:

     […] Mr. Jos had the honour of leading out the Countess of Schlusselback, an old lady with a hump back, but with sixteen good quarters of nobility and related to half the royal houses of Germany.

   • 1948, Philip Gibbs, Behind the Curtain, Toronto: The Ryerson Press, Chapter 5,

     He saw Dmitri half rise from his chair so that the shadow of his humpback shifted on the whitewashed wall.

   1. (by extension) A hump or protuberance on the shoulders or back of an animal.
      • 1902, Somerset Maugham, Mrs Craddock, London: Heinemann, 1955, Chapter 16, p. 157,

        […] the cows stood about with gloomy eyes and hump-backs, surly and dangerous […]

      • 1969, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Earth Shine, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, “Immersion in Life,” p. 52,

        On the bare hills one begins to see unfamiliar silhouettes of animals against the sky. […] the peaked humpbacks of gnu on a ridge […]

   2. (figurative) A rounded topographical feature, such as a mountain or hill.
      • 1858, Royal B. Stratton, Captivity of the Oatman Girls, San Francisco: [for the author], Chapter 4, p. 134,

        On either side were the high, irregularly sloped mountains, with their foot hills robed in the same bright green as the valley, and with their bald hump-backs and sharp peaks, treeless, verdureless, and desolate […]

      • 1968, Barry England, Figures in a Landscape, New York: Random House, Part 1, p. 78,

        The Goons kept appearing and disappearing in different places, always closer to them, as they worked their way over the humpback of the terrain.

      • 2002, Michael Collins, The Resurrectionists, Penguin, 2006, Chapter 38, p. 286,

        I could see clear out to the humpbacks of small islands along the great lake, where small banks of fog hung.

2. (derogatory, now offensive) A person with a humpback; a person who suffers from kyphosis.

   Synonyms: crookback, hunchback

   • 1860, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Book 2, Chapter 6,

     […] Tom’s more specific and kindly impressions gradually melted into the old background of suspicion and dislike toward him as a queer fellow, a humpback, and the son of a rogue.

   • 1951, Graham Greene, The End of the Affair, Penguin, 1975, Book 2, Chapter 7, p. 81,

     […] I stared up at the raw spots on his cheek and thought, there is no safety anywhere: a humpback, a cripple—they all have the trigger that sets love off.

3. A humpback whale.
4. A humpback salmon.

Derived terms

• humpback bridge
• humpback salmon
• humpback whale
• Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin

Related terms

• humpbacked

Translations

humped back

Azerbaijani: donqar Bulgarian: гърбица f (gǎrbica) Chinese: Mandarin: 駝背／驼背 (zh) (tuóbèi) Finnish: kyttyrä (fi) French: bosse (fr) f Georgian: კუზი (ḳuzi) German: Buckel (de) m Hungarian: púp (hu) Japanese: 傴僂 (くぐせ, kuguse), 傴僂 (せむし, semushi) Korean: 곱사 (gopsa), 곱사등 (gopsadeung) Macedonian: гр́пка f (gŕpka) Maori: tuarā hake Portuguese: corcunda (pt) f Russian: горб (ru) m (gorb) Telugu: కుబ్జము (kubjamu)

humpbacked person

Arabic: أَحْدَب‎ (ar) m (ʾaḥdab), حَدْبَاء‎ f (ḥadbāʾ) Armenian: կուզիկ (hy) (kuzik) Azerbaijani: donqar, qozbel Bulgarian: гърбушко m (gǎrbuško) Catalan: geperut (ca) m, geperuda (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 駝背／驼背 (zh) (tuóbèi), 駝子／驼子 (zh) (tuózi) Dutch: bultenaar (nl) Finnish: kyttyräselkä French: bossu (fr) m, bossue (fr) f Georgian: კუზიანი (ḳuziani) German: Buckliger (de) m, Bucklige (de) f Greek: καμπούρης (el) m (kampoúris), καμπούρα (el) f (kampoúra) Hebrew: גיבן‎ m, גיבנה‎ f Ido: gibozo (io), gibiero (io) Irish: cruitíneach m Japanese: 傴僂 (くぐせ, kuguse), 傴僂 (せむし, semushi) Korean: 곱사 (gopsa), 곱사등이 (gopsadeung'i), 꼽추 (kkopchu) Macedonian: гр́бавец m (gŕbavec), гр́бавко m (gŕbavko), ка́мбур m (kámbur) Maori: piari, manau, tāupe Persian: گوژپشت‎ (fa) (gužpošt) Portuguese: corcunda (pt) m or f Russian: горбу́н (ru) m (gorbún), горбу́нья (ru) f (gorbúnʹja), горба́ч (ru) m (gorbáč), горба́тый (ru) m (gorbátyj), горба́тая (ru) f (gorbátaja) Spanish: jorobado (es) m, corcovado (es), giboso, contrahecho (es) Tagalog: kuba, kuba Telugu: కుబ్జుడు (te) (kubjuḍu)

humpback whale

Bulgarian: гърбав кит m (gǎrbav kit) Macedonian: гр́бав кит m (gŕbav kit)

See also

• kyphosis

Verb

humpback (third-person singular simple present humpbacks, present participle humpbacking, simple past and past participle humpbacked)

1. To hunt humpback whales.
   • 1895, Charles Nordhoff, Whaling and Fishing, New York: Dodd, Mead, Chapter 10, p. 191,

     The captain of the James Rodgers […] was an old hand at humpbacking […]

   • 1953, Emma Mayhew Whiting and Henry Beetle Hough, Whaling Wives, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 16, p. 240,

     […] the Alice Knowles […] did her whaling in the south Atlantic, by turns humpbacking off the African coast and cruising around Tristan in season.