THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 25

What two words related to truth get their names from a county in North Carolina?

Subject:  Epistemology - Bunk vs. Debunk

Event:  Felix Walker from Buncombe County, North Carolina gives a speech, 1820

On this day in 1820, Felix Walker, a congressman representing Buncombe County, North Carolina, delivered a speech that eventually led to the creation of a new word.

The 16th Congress was debating the issue of statehood for the territory of Missouri.  The key conflict in the debate was the issue of slavery and whether or not Missouri should be admitted as a free state or a slave state.  In the midst of the debate, Congressman Walker rose to speak.  However, instead of presenting remarks that were germane to the issue of slavery, Walker instead began to ramble about topics totally unrelated to the issue at hand.  As he continued to drone on with his irrelevant speech, his colleagues attempted to stifle him.  Walker resisted, saying that he had been sent to Washington to deliver a speech, and he would, therefore, continue to address the constituents who elected him in North Carolina.  Walker’s specific words were:  “I shall not be speaking to the House but to Buncombe.”

Walker’s speech was not forgotten — not because of its great content, but because it became synonymous with the type of insincere, bombastic nonsense that some politicians are known for.  The Americanism that emerged from the Walker incident took that name of the Congressman’s county Buncombe, spelling it as bunkum.  Today we recognize the clipped form bunk, meaning “empty, pretentious nonsense” (1).

Later in 1923, novelist and biographer William E. Woodward wrote a novel called Bunk.  In the novel, Woodward introduced the verb debunk, meaning “the act of exposing false claims” (2).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What are the origins of the noun “bunk” and the verb “debunk”?

Challenge - Debunk A Myth:  Since 1994, David and Barbara Mikkelson have been a presence on the internet, debunking false information.  At first, their work revolved mainly around debunking urban legends, but today Snopes.com fact-checks a wide range of subjects.  Visit Snopes and explore some of the topics.  What is one specific subject that Snopes has determined is bunk, and how specifically does Snopes debunk it?

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

February 25, 1524:   On this day Johannes Stoffler, a German mathematician and astrologer, predicted a great flood.  He claimed that the planets would align under Pisces, a water sign, and that on that day torrential rain would begin to fall.  Many took Stoffler’s prediction seriously; in fact, a German nobleman named Count von Iggleheim constructed a three-story ark.  When February 25 arrived, there was light rain but no flood (3).

 

Sources:

1-Chrysti the Wordsmith.  Verbivore’s Feast Second Course.  Helena, Montana, Farcountry Press, 2006: 43.

2- Dickson, Paul.  Authorisms: Words Wrought by Writers.  New York:  Bloomsbury, 2014:  53.

3-Cole, Rachel. “10 Failed Doomsday Predictions.” Britannica.com.