bumf

English

Etymology

Clipping of bumfodder.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /bʌmf/

Noun

bumf (uncountable)

  1. (Britain, obsolete) Toilet paper.
  2. (derogatory) Useless papers; now especially official documents, standardized forms, sales and marketing print material, etc.
    • 2006: Quest, Richard, A Sour Taste in the Mouth, CNN.com, October 28, 2006
      And as for the limited warnings on documents and signs – we are so used to reading this bumf we fail to realise when they mean business.
    • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
      In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.

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