According to the Oxford Language’s dictionary, the slang word “bunkum,” which translates to nonsense, malarky, or all-around gibberish, got its roots from a particularly rambly + pointless speech made by Buncombe County congressman Felix Walker (1817-23) in the 1820s.
Naturally, we had to investigate this more, so we checked with Heather S., the Lead Archivist at the Western Regional Archives, and it turns out that the hearsay is completely true. Congressman Walker’s infamously over-the-top speech arose during the discussions that led to the now-repealed Missouri Compromise.
Apparently, Walker lobbied to speak on behalf of his Buncombe County constituents, taking the stage after many other politicians and famously veering away from the topic at hand. Despite a number of Walker’s fellow congressmen begging him to stop, he continued his dense, metaphor-laden speech for what bystanders described as a lengthy amount of time. Supposedly, it was about 5,000 words.
From that point on, congressmen across the country began using the word Buncombe to describe meaningless political rhetoric. As the word gained more mainstream popularity, the spelling shifted to “bunkum.” Then, the trimmed-down “bunk” entered the lexicon in 1893 thanks to writer Finley Peter Dunne. From there, it was off to the races, with the slang word being used by the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.
What’s more, according to the North Carolina Highway Historical Markers, this phrase is also the root for the more commonly used word “debunk,” which was first used within 25 years of Walker’s nonsense speech.
While the word bunkum is no longer used regularly in the States, it has still retained its use among locals in WNC, as illustrated by this Mountain Xpress opinion article titled “Burdens or bunkum?”
