This idiom means a piece of false information, whether given on purpose or not. Actually it is attributed to 19th century American maritime humor. “Steer” in this connotation does not refer to male cattle, but rather to steering a ship in reverse.

It is currently admittedly used more in Australia and New Zealand, but in spite of claims by other researchers that it had only been known in America since the 1920s, The Foundry, a publication printed in Cleveland, Ohio, in the issue for April, 1901, has the following in the feature “Chimmie Powers Answers to Correspondents,” on page 18 in an entry by S.E. Attle:

“Give de gaffer a bum steer de first chanst yu get.” 

Over the next several years it was cited in numerous U.S. publications including the Anamosa Prison Press, Anamosa, Iowa; Saturday, Oct. 24, 1903:

“Somebody’s been giving the P.P. man a bum steer.”

Then, in the Saturday Evening Post, April 22, 1905 in “A Meteorological Misadventure,” a humorous story by Kenneth Harris on page 7:

“I studied on it as we plowed along through the dust, and I couldn’t help thinking that the Professor had got what is technically known as a bum steer.” 

American citations over the next few decades seem limitless and it was mentioned in The American Language by Henry Louis Mencken, first published in 1919, in the 1936 edition.

“Bum as an adjective (as in bum steer and bum food), bum’s-rush.” 

Previous researchers appear to be more accurate as to its appearance in the U.K. around the end of World War II.

If you would like to know the origin of a favorite expression, text the author at 931-212-3303 or email him at stan@stclair.net.