This is British
slang and is a slightly less vulgar way of saying pain in the arse or pain in the ass if you are American. In this expression the bum in question isn’
t an American bum, a word that dates from around the
mid nineteenth century, but an English or Australian bum, a word that dates back to the early seventeenth century. At one time the word was not considered to be vulgar at all and was used extensively during the seventeenth an eighteenth centuries. One
Gentleman Soldier, fighting for the
King during the English Civil War, wrote in a letter that on one occasion the going as so difficult that he “slipped and fell on my bum”.