bust (1764)

1700S, ENGLISH COINAGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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It is perhaps apt that the word bust (1764) came into the English language from the Massachusetts dialect as a variant of burst, meaning ‘spree’, as in a burst of activity. The common habit in Massachusetts at the time was to drop the medial letter -r- in speech.

This word introduces yet another category of new American words; neologisms arising from phonological change. Unlike the actual word bust, meaning ‘head and shoulders, chest or torso’, this new bust was a shortening of burst.

By 1833 it would gain a new, ruinous meaning in America. A half century later it would be economies and banks that burst, I mean, bust.

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