the.com/bust
Either a stone head or a total flop, and somehow both involve being immortalized wrong.
means To break or fail completely, or a sculpture of someone's head and shoulders, or a police raid — depending on which sense you grab.
from Two different words wearing the same coat. The sculpture sense came through French 'buste' from Italian 'busto,' the upper torso, ultimately from Latin 'bustum,' which oddly meant a funeral pyre or tomb monument — the bust began as a memorial to the dead. The 'break/fail/raid' sense is much later and homelier: an American variant of 'burst,' which is the genuinely old word here, going back to Old English 'berstan,' to break apart. So a stone bust and a busted plan only sound like kin; one comes from the grave, the other from a good loud snap.
- two meanings
- A sculpted head or a spectacular failure
- police slang
- A raid that breaks a criminal operation
- poker term
- To go bust means losing everything
- latin roots
- From bustum, meaning tomb or funeral pyre
hans and franz — saturday night live characters (1986-1989) who said 'we are here to pump you up'
mc hammer — rapper who appeared on in living color (1990) doing the running man dance
ghost busters — 1984 film where bill murray says 'bustin' makes me feel good'