10 March 2018

bunkum or buncombe

[buhng-kuh m]

noun

1. insincere speechmaking by a politician intended merely to please local constituents.
2. insincere talk; claptrap; humbug.

Origin of bunkum

Americanism; after speech in 16th Congress, 1819-21, by F. Walker, who said he was bound to speak for Buncombe (N.C. county in district he represented)

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for bunkum

Historical Examples

That fifty dollars being put on for anybody else was bunkum.
Thoroughbreds
W. A. Fraser

“All bunkum and wind,” said he, pitching them into a corner.
Kilgorman
Talbot Baines Reed

It’s for them that all these atrocities are invented—most of them bunkum.
The Hero
William Somerset Maugham

I suppose you will say next that I hypnotised her—or some bunkum of that sort!
The Seven Secrets
William Le Queux

Tall talk’s his jewelry: he must have his dandification in bunkum.
Beauchamp’s Career, Complete
George Meredith

I regret, however, to have to write that this idea of self-sacrifice is really all bunkum.
Egyptian Birds
Charles Whymper

Slavery speeches are all bunkum ; so are reform speeches, too.
The Attache
Thomas Chandler Haliburton

No, not they; they want Irish votes, that’s all—it’s bunkum.
The Attache
Thomas Chandler Haliburton

It must not be supposed, however, that this was all bunkum to Mr. Spokesly.
Command
William McFee

Then all that talk of yours about getting me out of danger was bunkum ?
Jacob’s Ladder
E. Phillips Oppenheim

Today’s quote

In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it.

– Alex Haley

On this day

10 March 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call. His first words were ‘Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you’.

10 March 1917 – British forces drive Turkish forces out of Baghdad, taking control of the city.

10 March 1964 – birth of Neneh Cherry, Swedish singer, song-writer.

10 March 1940 – birth of Carlos Ray Norris, aka Chuck Norris, American actor, martial artist and invincible superhero.