even read of boomlets to express progress of a lesser degree. [Its origin is largely a matter of conjecture, but the most probable derivation is from the nautical phrase 'boom-out,' signifying a vessel running rapidly before the wind; but Murray points out that as various associations are probable, and as the actual use of the word has not been regulated by any distinct etymological feeling, it is not likely that any derivation will account for all its applications.]
Subs.—Commercial activity; rapid advance in prices; a flourishing state of affairs—in all its applications it is synonymous with extreme vigour and effectiveness. The first quotation carries its use back a few years beyond the earliest date given in the New English Dictionary.
1875. Scribner's Mag., July, p. 277. Another boom in prices is to be looked for.
1883. Referee, May 6, p. 3, col. 2. 'The Merry Duchess' is a big boom, and I understand that money is being turned away nightly.
1883. M. Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 499. I lived here in 1857—an extraordinary year there in real-estate matters. The boom was something wonderful. Everybody bought, everybody sold . . . anything in the semblance of a town lot, no matter how situated, was saleable.
1888. Boston Daily Globe. After the Sheridan reception, of course John Sherman must come to Boston. The Ohio statesman knows where all the real live booms start. If Mr. Blaine is wise he also will come to the 'Hub' without delay.
1888. Missouri Republican, 16 Feb. 'Jim, they say thar is a big bum up at Rome.' 'What's that?' said Jim. 'It's a kind of new tradin' business what swells and shrinks, and the sweller and shrinker stays down in a celler and works the machine. They trade in stock.' 'Horses and mules?' said Jim. 'No, hit's all on paper, and nobody can see what he's buyin'. You put your money in and wait for a swell. If it comes you are all right, but if a shrink comes you are busted, and you feel so ashamed that you don't say anything about it, and it never gets into the papers—nothing but the swells gits into the papers.
Verb, intr.—To go off with a boom.—See subs. To make rapid and vigorous progress; to advance by leaps and bounds; trans. to push; to puff; to bring into prominence with a rush.
1874. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Gilded Age, ch. xxvii. There's 200,000 dollars coming, and that will set things booming again.
1875. Scribner's Mag., July, p. 272. Stocks may boom to-day, but droop tomorrow, and with the crash come remorse and repentance. Ibid. p. 277. When stocks are active they are said to be booming.
1884. M. Twain, Huckleberry Finn, xiii., 3. We boomed along down the river, watching for lights and watching for our raft.
1888. Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean. The city of Paris is said to be diminishing instead of increasing in population. They don't know how to boom a town over there.
As already stated, boom enters into many combinations; BOOMER (q.v.), BOOM-BELT, BOOMING-SQUAD, etc.
1888. New Orleans Picayune. A boom in North Carolina is not the kind of phenomenon to which we are accustomed here. Sales of land at from 2 dols. to 10 dols. an acre in a boom belt are not of record hereabout.
1888. Chicago Herald. Ben Butterworth, of Ohio, one of the mainstays of John Sherman's booming squad, has just had the title of boss Republican tariff debater conferred upon him by the culture of Boston.
To top one's boom off, phr. (nautical).—To be off, or to start in a certain direction.
