THE WORD "BUNfiUM”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 7 April 1934, Page 2

THE WORD "BUNfiUM”

Bunkum, or more properly Buncombe, is a useful word which England has borrowed from America. The origin of this phrase, talking Buncombe, is related in Wheeler’s “History of North Carolina”: “Several years ago the member in Congress for the district of Buncombe rose to address the House, without any extraordinary gifts either in manner .or in matter to interest the audience. Many members arose and left the hall. Very najveb' he told those who remained that they might go also, as he should speak for sonie time, but was only speaking for '“Buncombe.” The word has also come to signify what is sometimes called bosh. “Our people,” says Sam Slick, “talk a great deal of nonsense about emancipation, but they know it’s all Buncombe. In Eno-land the Parliamentary reporters have the power to deprive Buncombe in either House of all its power to reach the place ior which it is intended, by the simple plan of refusing to make a note of it. But no such power exists in the United States; and he who speaks for Buncombe, though lie cannot oblige the House to listen to him, can compel the official reporters of the House to take down his words. No wonder that Buncombe is a greater nuisance in America than it is likely to be in England.”