The word bump was invented by Shakespeare. No, really ...
Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly:
'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
Wilt thou not, Jule?' it stinted and said 'Ay.'
Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene III
Bump is when you reply to a thread to bump it back to the top of the current topic list.
By replying I just bumped this thread back to the top.
Ah, this thread is not that pointless after all! Thanks for clarifying this annoying *bump* phenomenon. So that's what it's all about, and I find myself doing it too. Wow, how long can this thread keep going ...
or that outer limits episode with the box delivered to your door. If you opened the box, someone you didn't know would die, so you had to resist opening it. And at the end, there was a note or something describing how another box has been sent to another stranger.
