Seeing the word “bunkum” in Jordan Fish’s Wespeak on oversubscription got me really excited! As a proud North Carolinian, I am grateful for this opportunity to recount the word’s etymology.
“Bunkum” (often also seen in its shortened form, “bunk”), is a bastardized spelling of “Buncombe,” the North Carolina county where you would find Andie MacDowell’s house, the great city of Asheville, the comically-named French Broad River, the epic rock group Sharkilepsy, and the Biltmore Estate – America’s largest house! The term came into usage around 1820, when U.S. House representative Felix Walker stalled voting on the Missouri Compromise with a rambling oration immediately denounced by his peers as sheer buncombe/bunkum/bunk.
P. S. The North Carolina state bird is the cardinal. Go Wes!
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