bunch

Meaning

Noun

1. A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.
2. The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
3. An informal body of friends.
4. (US, informal) A considerable amount.
5. (informal) An unmentioned amount; a number.
6. A group of logs tied together for skidding.
7. An unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.
8. The reserve yarn on the filling bobbin to allow continuous weaving between the time of indication from the midget feeler until a new bobbin is put in the shuttle.
9. An unfinished cigar, before the wrapper leaf is added.
10. A protuberance; a hunch; a knob or lump; a hump.
11. (obsolete) A seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass, 60 of which constitute a way or web.

Verb

1. (transitive) To gather into a bunch.
2. (transitive) To gather fabric into folds.
3. (intransitive) To form a bunch.
4. (intransitive) To be gathered together in folds
5. (intransitive) To protrude or swell

Synonyms

cluster

bundle

group

sheaf

clump

crowd

tuft

pile

pack

wisp

band

bouquet

💐

nappy

diaper

napkin

string

🪢

flock

force

troop

team

shift

squad

lump

mob

gang

unit

detachment

bunch up

fascicle

school

🏫

huddle

stack

batch

package

📦

lot

knot

🪢

cluster of fruit

truss

crew

coil

faggot

throng

set

rick

bale

battery

🔋

pigtail

mass

handful

bind

Translations

grappe

bos

🪵

groupe

racimo

tas

grappolo

botte

👢

gruppo

mazzo

Strauß

Traube

Bund

Bündel

bouquet

💐

pannolino

Pronounced as (IPA)

/bʌntʃ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: bunche

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: Bunke

Cognate with Western Frisian: bonke

Cognate with Dutch: bonk

Cognate with Low German: Bunk

Cognate with German: Bunge

Cognate with Danish: bunke

Cognate with Faroese: bunki

Cognate with Tokharian B: pkante

Cognate with Lithuanian: búožė

Cognate with Ancient Greek: παχύς

Cognate with Sanskrit: बहु

Cognate with French: bongeau

In summary

From Middle English bunche, bonche (“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin.
Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung (“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkō, *bunkô, *bungǭ (“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ-, *bʰénǵʰus (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke (“bone”), West Frisian bonke (“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk (“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk (“bone”), German Bunge (“tuber”), Danish bunke (“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki (“heap, pile”); Hittite [Term?] (/⁠panku⁠/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante (“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búožė (“knob”), Ancient Greek παχύς (pakhús, “thick”), Kamkata-viri břẽć, břez (“berry tree”), Prasuni vuzra (“berry tree”), Sanskrit बहु (bahú, “thick; much”)).
Alternatively, perhaps from a variant or diminutive of bump (compare hump/hunch, lump/lunch, etc.); or from dialectal Old French bonge (“bundle”) (compare French bongeau, bonjeau, bonjot), from West Flemish bondje, diminutive of West Flemish bond (“bundle”).