Debunk

Filed Under January 2008, columns 

Dear Word Detective: Where did the word “debunk” come from? Has anybody ever praised something by “bunking” it? — Allan Pratt.

Not in so many words, although one could argue that TV news consists largely of “bunking” things in the sense of slathering them with misinformation. It’s a hoary truism that the more you know about a topic, the more errors you’re likely to find in news coverage of it. In the case of TV news, it sometimes seems that all you have to be an “expert” in is “living on this planet.”

“Debunk” is a useful little verb, meaning “to remove the nonsense from” something, especially to expose false or exaggerated claims made about something, whether it be a “miracle drug,” a mystical phenomenon or the latest diet fad. TV shows and books devoted to “debunking” urban myths and popular misconceptions are wildly popular with modern audiences, but apparently not quite popular enough to stop millions of folks from falling victim to scams and con games every year. Just ask the Nigerian Finance Minister’s widow.

The odd thing about the verb “to debunk,” which first appeared in 1923, is that there actually is no corresponding positive verb form “to bunk.” The word “bunk” is a noun meaning “nonsense” (dating back to around 1900), and is simply a shortened form of “bunkum” (also meaning “nonsense). “Bunkum,” in turn, is a simplified form of “Buncombe,” which happens to be a county in North Carolina, and thereby hangs a tale. Way back in 1820, the US House of Representatives was debating a measure known as the Missouri Compromise. During a highly-charged floor debate, Rep. Felix Walker of North Carolina, whose district happened to include Buncombe County, rose to speak. Unfortunately, as he spoke it became clear that what he was saying was totally irrelevant to the issue on the floor, but he would not stop. Finally, with his colleagues almost at the point of strangling him, he declared that his constituents in Buncombe County wished him to speak and he therefore had a duty “to make a speech for Buncombe.” Then he started talking again. One wonders how his constituents felt when they discovered that he had made their county’s name an enduring synonym for “meaningless nonsense.”

Incidentally (and I know someone is just about to ask), “bunk” meaning “nonsense” is utterly unrelated to “bunk” beds and the like. The source of the “bed” sense of “bunk” is unknown, but it may be related “bank,” which originally meant “bench” (from the Latin “bancus,” bench), and which was also possibly the source of “bunker.” A different branch of that “bench” meaning of “bank” was extended to mean “money-changer’s table or stall,” which eventually gave us Citibank and its ilk.

 

 

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