My brother, Ryan, is just under 2 years younger than I am. When he was born, he was very chubby and had a massive (to my mind) head. I believe he was a late crawler due to his inability to support his own noggin. When he did finally learn to crawl and then walk, there was no stopping him. As a child he got himself a pair of "Kangaroo" shoes and was always happy to demonstrate just how quickly those sneakers allowed him to run.
The boy loved to run. Not only did he love to run, but he loved to run, head lowered, straight into an innocent bystander's gut. This was called a bunner. I was the victim of many a bunner. It still amazes me that it happened with such frequency. I mean, it wasn't like he was unexpectedly slapping me. He was running at full-tilt from a distance that presumably was far enough away to build up some steam. Didn't I see him coming? My reflexes are notoriously bad, but the boy couldn't even have been able to see where he was going. The advantage should have been mine.
The question my mother and I grappled with was on the origin of the term "bunner". We have no idea where it came from. As I have mentioned previously, much of my mother's family was from Serbia and some Serbian words have found their way into my vocabulary. The name of this blog is one example. It is a strange thing to take up the Etymology of a word that is, in all likelihood, complete gibberish. I decided to attempt it anyway.
My thought was that bunner may have its origins in the Slavic languages. I have no idea if this is the case. When I google bunner, nothing comes up that may apply. However, I have found a dictionary that gives the Slovak word "baran" as meaning ram. A possible connection? Who knows.
Maybe his head looked like a bun. Or maybe we meant to say bunkin bronco.
ReplyDeleteurban dictionary has one meaning being a buzz kill...getting the wind knocked out of you was a buzz kill.
ReplyDeleteyou may ask what kind of buzz did we have as kids but it was on all the fresh air b/c remember that's why we were outside ... "it was too much of a nice day to play inside". plus if we weren't outside the neighborhood old ladies would have nothing to worry about. i.e. the old lady who called to tell my mom the kids were rolling down the hill and the ground was cold. she did not know my mom and your mom were happy with us rolling on the cold ground b/c we weren't inside playing!!! plus if we were rolling down the hill noone was fighting or crying for at least 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the good people at urban dictionary heard about Ryan's bunner and decided to make it mean something. And you're right, it was a buzz kill!
ReplyDeleteThey were a heavenly 10 minutes and rare.
ReplyDeletediane thought maybe it came from bunt and was just turned into bunner.
ReplyDelete