bum, you

   This is far more frequently used by American speakers than by British speakers. In Britain ‘bum’ is mainly thought of as a slightly rude, childish word for the buttocks. To American speakers it is likely to suggest a tramp, or good-for-nothing hobo, when used in third-person reference. As a vocative it expresses contempt in a fairly general way, but may especially be applied to a poor performer in a sporting or entertainment context. ‘If his audience shouted “Scram, bum!”,’ writes Nathanael West, in The Day of the Locust, ‘he only smiled humbly and went on with his act’ In The Late Risers, by Bernard Wolfe, an American man calls a woman ‘you bum’. Soon afterwards he is calling her ‘you crazy bitch’. Doctor at Sea, by Richard Gordon, has ‘you bums’ used insultingly. The Middle Man, by David Chandler, has: ‘Why, you bum! Who do you think you’re instructing?’ used by an older American man to a younger. ‘Thanks fer nuthin’, ya bum,’ says one man to another in Waterfront, by Budd Schulberg, when he fails to receive the money for a cup of coffee that he has asked for, though since he is the one doing the begging, the term applies more to him. bunch of Used as a plural element, mainly by American working-class speakers. ‘Buncha crooks’, for example, occurs in Truman Capote’s short story Jug of Silver.