or buncombe, buncome, subs. (American).—Talking for talking’s sake; claptrap; gas; tall talk: orig. insincere political discussion. Hence, as adj. = bogus, insincere, etc.: e.g., a BUNKUM proclamation, BUNKUM logic, BUNKUM politicians, etc. THAT’S ALL BUNKUM = that’s all nonsense! The thing’s absurd!
1841. Richmond Compiler, Aug. 17. He was not speaking to the House, but to BUNKUM.
1851. J. H. WHEELER, History of North Carolina, I. ix. 52. Several years ago, in Congress, the member from this immediate district arose to address the house, without any extraordinary powers either in manner or matter to interest the audience. Many members left the hall. Very naïvely, he told those who were so kind as to remain that they might go too; he should speak for some time, but ‘he was only talking for BUNCOMBE.’
1855. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), Nature and Human Nature, 175. Our people talk a great deal of nonsense about emancipation, but they know it’s all BUNCOMBE.
1857. New York Tribune, 2 March. The House of Representatives broke down upon the Corruption committee’s bill to protect the integrity of members of Congress, having first passed it for BUNCOMBE. Ibid. Here is an amusing biography of General Houston, bulky in size, capital in paper, and evidently got up for BUNCOMBE. Ibid. (1862), Feb. 11. Despatch from Kansas. General Sibley was within thirty miles of Fort Craig, with twenty-five hundred Texans, with artillery, and had issued a BUNKUM proclamation.
1857. C. KINGSLEY, Two Years Ago, xxv. Talk plain truth, and leave BUNKUM for right honourables who keep their places thereby.
1859. G. A. SALA, Twice Round the Clock, 2 A.M., 9. These tales, full of sound and fury, told by honourable idiots full of unutterable BUNKUM (an Americanism I feel constrained to use, as signifying nothingness, ineffably inept and irremediably fire-perforated windbaggery, and sublimated cucumber sunbeams hopelessly eclipsed into Dis)—
1861. Blackwood’s Magazine, April. This parable, explaining the origin of BUNCOMBE, would form a very useful text to set up, handsomely illustrated, over the Speaker’s chair in Parliament.
1855. JACOB BIGELOW, Eolopoesis: American Rejected Addresses. ‘The American Congress.’
| Come on, ye stump men eloquent, in never-ending stream, | |
| Let office be your glorious goal, and BUNKUM be your theme. |
1845. J. G. SAXE, Progress.
| Here, would-be Tullys pompously parade | |
| Their tumid tropes for simple ‘BUNCOMBE’ made. |
1857. S. G. GOODRICH, Recollections of a Lifetime, I, 101. On every side the ear was saluted by the mocking screams of the red-headed woodpecker, the cawing of congresses of crows, clamorous as if talking to BUNCOMBE.
1884. Echo, May 12, 4, 2. It will be seen that the wonderful tales about the favourites were like the reports about Richmond’s lameness, all BUNKUM.
1888. Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, March 3. This thing of trying to rule a husband is all BUNCOMBE; it can’t be done.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 18 Oct., 6. 2. His explanation was contained in the three words, ‘Bosh, rubbish, and BUNKUM.’
