the.com/bunkum
Nonsense dressed up in a suit and tie, hoping nobody checks its ID.
means Empty, insincere talk meant to please or pander rather than inform — speechmaking for show, not substance.
from Traces to Buncombe County, North Carolina. A congressman representing the district, in a long and widely regarded as pointless speech, reportedly insisted he was obliged to say something 'for Buncombe' — just to be on record as speaking to his constituents. The name stuck, got clipped and respelled to 'bunkum,' and later shortened further into 'bunk.'
- origin
- named after Buncombe County, North Carolina
- backstory
- congressman rambled pointlessly just to please Buncombe
- shortened to
- bunk, as in debunk
- year coined
- 1820s congressional speech, oddly specific