Bunces

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Surplus money or windfall gains made on top of wages, earnings or a regular payment
2. Additional profit or unexpected financial gain, often picked up on the side of a main income
3. Extra earnings or pickings, especially money gained informally beyond what was expected

Etymology: "Bunces" is the third-person singular present form of "bunce," a verb meaning to make a profit or get a cut, which is why it sounds like a shop-floor boast more than a dictionary entry. Its origins lie in the slang of costermongers, the street sellers of London who traded fruit and vegetables from barrows. Their jargon word "bunce" is thought to come from "bonus," a reward or extra payment, with the sense of a gain picked up on top of the ordinary price. The link to "bonus" is the likely explanation rather than a certainty, since costermonger slang was spoken rather than written and left few records. What the connection shows is how a formal Latin-derived term for an extra reward could be clipped and reshaped into street talk, where it came to mean the small, quiet profit a trader pocketed from a sale.

Synonyms: profits, gains