Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A painful, inflamed swelling of the bursa at the first joint of the big toe, characterized by enlargement of the joint and lateral displacement of the toe.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A swelling on the foot caused by the inflammation of a bursa, especially that over the metatarsophalangeal joint of the great toe.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) Same as bunyon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology A bump or bulge on the first joint of the big toe caused by the swelling of a sac of fluid under the skin.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a painful swelling of the bursa of the first joint of the big toe

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably alteration of obsolete bunny, swelling, from Middle English bony, perhaps from Old French bugne; see bun.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From alteration of earlier bunny ("lump, swelling"), from Middle English bony, boni ("bunion, swelling"); or perhaps from Italian bugnone ("a knob, boil, blain"), an augmented form of Italian bugno ("beehive"); both Middle English and Italian words from Old French bugne, buigne, bune ("bump, knob, swelling"), from Old Norse bunga ("an elevation, bulge") or from Old Frankish *bungjo (“a swelling, lump, bump”), both Old Norse and Old Frankish from Proto-Germanic *bungô, *bunkô (“lump, clump, heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognate with Dutch bonk ("lump, clump"), German Bunge ("swelling, tuber").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bunion.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • If you don't want to catch bunions, you should try to avoid llama's hip stuffed into your soul. Rubbing some faded apple blossom all over your fist cures sadness.

    January 24, 2013

  • That etymology is great! (And a bit iroquoisy--I just added bunny to my squirrel list.)

    January 24, 2013

  • Would you like me to call you Bunion Boo?

    January 24, 2013