Bunch
wiktionary
From Middle English bunche, bonche(“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin.
Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung(“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkō, *bunkô, *bungǭ(“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ-, *bʰéng̑ʰus(“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke(“bone”), West Frisian bonke(“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk(“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk(“bone”), German Bunge(“tuber”), Danish bunke(“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki(“heap, pile”); Hittite[Term?](/panku/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante(“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búožė(“knob”), Ancient Greek παχύς(pakhús, “thick”), Sanskrit बहु(bahú, “thick; much”)).
Alternatively, perhaps from a variant or diminutive of bump (compare hump/hunch, lump/lunch, etc.); or from dialectal Old French bonge(“bundle”) (compare French bongeau, bonjeau, bonjot), from West Flemish bondje, diminutive of West Flemish bond(“bundle”).
etymonline
bunch (n.)
mid-14c., "a bundle;" late 14c., "protuberance on the body, swelling, knob, lump," probably from Old French dialectal bonge "bundle," a nasalized form of Old French bouge (2), 15c., from Flemish bondje diminutive of boud "bundle." The sense of "a cluster, joined collection of things of the same kind" is from mid-15c. The looser meaning "a lot, a group of any kind" is from 1620s.
bunch (v.)
late 14c., "to bulge out," from bunch (n.). Meaning "to gather up in a bunch" (transitive) is from 1828; sense of "to crowd together" (intransitive) is from 1850. Related: Bunched; bunching.
