Boom

Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 2: Beaugency to Cataract, p. 317

Boom is a word frequently used of late in America and Britain and the colonies for a start or rapid development of commercial activity or speculation, as when shares go off, or prices go up 'with a boom.' The word is assumed to be suggested less by boom in the sense of noise than by the rushing progress the noise often accompanies.

Source scan(s): p. 0328