Rump

Rump (pronounced ruhmp)

(1) The hind part of the body of an animal, as the hindquarters of a quadruped or sacral region of a bird.

(2) A cut of beef from this part of the animal, behind the loin and above the round.

(3) The buttocks.

(4) The last part, especially that which is unimportant or inferior.

(5) The remnant of a legislature, council, etc after a majority of the members have resigned or been expelled.

1375-1425: From the late Middle English rumpe from the Old Norse rumpr from the Middle Low German rump (the bulk or trunk of a body, trunk of a tree), ultimately from the Proto-Germanic rumpō (trunk of a tree, log).  It was cognate with the Icelandic rumpur (rump), the Swedish rumpa (rump), the Dutch romp (trunk, body, hull) and the German rumpf (hull, trunk, torso, trunk).  The meaning "hind-quarters, buttocks of an animal," is from the mid-fifteenth century and a borrowing from the Scandinavian sources.  The sense of a "small remnant" derives from "tail" and dates from the 1640s in reference to the English Rump Parliament (Dec 1648-Apr 1653).  The adjectival form appears first to have been used circa 1600.

Gratuitous objectification: One dozen pictures of Lindsay Lohan’s rump.

Cromwell and the Rump Parliament

The Rump Parliament is the historical term for what was left of the Long Parliament after the English Parliament was purged in 1648 of members hostile to the rebel army’s intention to try King Charles I (1600–1649; King of England, Scotland & Ireland 1625-1649) for high treason.  The Rump is best known for the memorable (and not wholly apocryphal) words of by Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658; Lord Protector of the Commonwealth 1653-1658) who, on 20 April 1653, backed by his army, (illegally) dissolved the parliament, throwing its members into the street, locking the doors.   

“You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

Those words were reprised by Leo Amery (1873–1955; British Tory Party politician 1911-1945) during a House of Commons debate in May 1940 in which he attacked Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940; UK prime-minister 1937-1940) over failings in the government's prosecution of the war.  Chamberlain resigned after acknowledging he'd lost the support of much of his party.  The drama of the moment meant Amery's words were well-chosen but when later used to try to dislodge a couple of twenty-first century prime-ministers, they seemed misplaced.

However, the famous quote is a paraphrase; no transcript of the speech survives but an approximation was reconstructed from the recollections of those in the house at the time.

“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.

Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.

Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?

Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.

I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.

Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors”.

Cromwell dissolving the Rump Parliament (circa 1782) by Benjamin West (1738-1820).