Bunk/Bunkum

This has been American slang for nonsense or rubbish since the mid-19th century and is the phonetic spelling of Buncombe, a county in North Carolina. The story of its origin is that on 25 February 1820, Felix Walker, Buncombe’s representative in the House of Representatives, made a long, dull and rambling speech. In response to the subsequent criticism he said, “I was not speaking to the House but to Buncombe.” Towards the end of the 19th century, bunkum was shortened to bunk. Debunk was coined by US novelist William Woodward (1874-1950) in 1923 the notion being to take the bunk or nonsense out of things.