Bunkum- empty talk
Politicians and empty talk go hand in hand. Any surprises then that the word bunkum has its origin in the world of politics? As the story goes, Felix Walker a Congressman from Buncombe County, North Carolina, US around 1820 gave the dullest of the speeches ever to the members of the 16th Congress. Despite people walking out on him, he continued, for his constituents expected him to make a speech, and so he was "obliged to speak for Buncombe" (as told by him later). Ever since buncombe which was later spelled as bunkum (also shortened to bunk sometimes) came to mean claptrap nonsense.
Sources: www.answers.com
10 comments:
hey I was working on the draft of this word :), well the saying goes the early bird gets the worm. this is a fun word
SU : haha! we seem to have made a trend of this here!!!! and it sure's a fun word....i landed upon it through "debunk"...how did u ????
this was solely due to jeeves, I love that man
great find, Moi
there is a similar sounding word for a fool .. b se hi hai kuch and i alwways thought it was derived from buncombe... bumpkin??
666, bumpkin's not from buncombe, i checked
whether bumpkin is from this word or not..I dont know..but I guess Bengali name Bankim must be from this word ...lol ..reminded me Bankim chandra Chattopadhyay
haha....that was hilarious , Yogsma..wait till i crack this one in front of my poor husband (who happens to be a bengali, by the way) :DDDD
interesting..
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