1809. W. Irving, Knickerbocker History of New York. Van Corlear stopped occasionally in the villages to . . . dance at country frolics, and bundle with the Yankee lasses.
1871. Schele De Vere, Americanisms, p. 448. To bundle, a custom still prevalent in Wales, and not unfrequently practised in the West, of men and women sleeping with all their clothes on, when there is not house-room to provide better accommodation.
Bundling or Bundling Up, subs. (old).—A custom now obsolete, but formerly in vogue where bed accommodation was scarce, of men and women sleeping on the same bed together without having removed their clothes. The practice is mentioned by Wright as having been customary in Wales, and it will be remembered that Washington Irving alludes to it in his Knickerbocker History of New York. Whatever may have been the case in former times, it does not appear to be a habit either in the Mother Country or the New World at the present day, even in the districts most remote from civilization. No question of immodesty seems to have attached to the custom; indeed, attempts were made to prove that bundling was very right and proper. On this point, however, opinions will vary considerably. Also used in verbal form to bundle. Cf., Caulk.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerbocker History of New York. Among other hideous customs they [the Yankees] attempted to introduce that of bundling, which the Dutch lasses of the Nederlandts, with their eager passion for novelty and for the fashions, natural to their sex, seemed very well inclined to follow, but that their mothers, being more experienced in the world and better acquainted with men and things, discountenanced all such outlandish innovations.
1814. Quarterly Review, X., 517. [The custom spoken of in.]
1842. C. Masson, Journal Balochistan, etc., III., 287. Many of the Afghan tribes have a custom in wooing, similar to what in Wales is known as bundling-up.
1868. W. H. Dixon, Spiritual Wives, vol. II., p. 31. An old custom, which exists (I believe) in Wales as well as in parts of Pennsylvania and New England, permits under the name of 'bundling,' certain free, but still innocent endearments to pass between lovers who are engaged.
1871. H. R. Styles, Bundling; its Origin, Progress, and Decline in America, title. [Contains also its history in England, Wales, Holland, curious songs, etc.]
1878. C. Wake, Evol. Moral., I., 401. The custom of bundling . . . among Celtic peoples. [m.]
Bung, Bong, Boung, subs. (old cant.)—1. A purse. [One of the oldest cant terms in the language, the origin of which is entirely unknown, though, says Murray, 'its resemblance to the O.E. pung, "a purse," is worth notice.'] Also called skin or poge (q.v.). A French thieves' term is la plotte.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Boung, a purse. Ibid, p. 86.
1591. Greene, Second Part Conny-*catching, in wks., vol. X., p. 96. The Nip vseth his knife, and if he see a Boung lie faire, strikes the stroke.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Bung is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse.
c. 1658. Cleveland, Cleivelandi Vindiciæ, p. 99 (ed. 1677). He is in the Inquisition of the Purse an Authentick Gypsie, that nips your Bung with a canting Ordinance.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 47. Boung, a Purse.
1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Bung, a purse.
2. (old.)—A pickpocket. Cf., Bung, sense 1. Bung-nipper (q.v.) was in general usage later.
