bulk

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The largest part or majority of something.

   The bulk of the work was finished before lunch.

2. 2
   noun

   Large size, mass, or volume.

   Buying supplies in bulk saves money in the long run.

3. 3
   noun

   A large, heavy body or shape.

   He squeezed his huge bulk through the narrow doorway.

From Middle English bulk, bolke (“a heap, cargo, hold; heap; bulge”), borrowed from Old Norse búlki (“the freight or the cargo of a ship”), from Proto-Germanic *bulkô (“beam, pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, pile, prop”). Compare Icelandic búlkast (“to be bulky”), Swedish dialectal bulk (“a bunch”), Danish bulk (“bump, knob”). Conflated with Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk”).

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