boom

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To grow or develop very quickly and successfully.

   The city's population boomed in recent years.

2. 2
   noun

   A period of rapid growth or sudden success, especially in business.

   The new factories created an economic boom in the region.

3. 3
   verb

   To make a deep, loud, echoing sound.

   Thunder boomed in the distance.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

There are three different words written boom. The oldest imitates a sound. The nautical boom, recorded from the early 17th century, comes from Dutch boom, meaning “tree, pole, beam,” and is related to beam. The late-19th-century American sense “sudden increase” may be related to the sound word. It produced baby boom, recorded in American usage since the late 19th century but now chiefly associated with the rise in births after the Second World War, as well as baby boomer and its later shortening boomer.

Onomatopoeic, perhaps borrowed; compare German bummen, Dutch bommen (“to hum, buzz”). The sense "a period of economic growth" is generally taken to derive from the sense "a rapid expansion", although other origins have also been suggested.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary