hump person

[RORSCHACH]

Hi,
I'm reading The Departed Screenplay by William Monahan. In a dialogue Sgt. Dignam tells Billy that his father was a "hump". I checked the meaning of "hump" but I still could not understand it. Please help me.

DIGNAM
Your old man was a hump from Southie. Baggage-handler at the airport. Family's all criminals except your old man.

 

[Keith Bradford]

Perhaps a hump is someone who humps luggage - i.e. a baggage-handler? Meaning no.11 on hump - WordReference.com Dictionary of English:

• to place or bear on the back or shoulder.
• to carry or haul.
• to load or unload; lift.

 

[bennymix]

The script is at Departed, The Script at IMSDb.

 

[kentix]

I think it means, more or less, a regular working guy with no particularly notable success in life. Nothing about him stands out.

Southie is a part of working class/lower class Boston where a lot of Mafia activity takes place. He was just another guy there making a living, but in his case he was doing it honestly. I'm not sure if he was a hump specifically because he was doing it honestly and was not resorting to crime. It sounds like it has the intonation of "sucker" to me. He was a sucker for being honest. It was easier to make more money being a criminal and maybe that's what his criminal family members thought about him.

It sounds like slang and might be a rough equivalent of the slang term "working stiff".

A working stiff is a person who has an ordinary job that is not well-paid.

 

[Language Hound]

The top--and only--definition from Urban Dictionary which gets 31 thumbs up and only 1 thumb down: a loser, a deadbeat.
I believe this is the meaning in The Departed: "Your old man was a loser from Southie. Baggage handler at the airport."