This week’s theme
Places that became verbs

This week’s words
birminghamize
barbados
solecize
locarnize
debunk



This week’s comments
AWADmail 788

Next week’s theme
Words related to medicine

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(di-BUNGK)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To expose the falseness of a claim, myth, belief, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Buncombe, a county in North Carolina. In 1820, Felix Walker, a representative from that area, made a pointless speech in the US Congress. While his colleagues in Congress urged him to stop and move to vote on an issue, Walker claimed that he had to make a speech “for Buncombe”. Eventually, “Buncombe” became a synonym for meaningless speech, became shortened to “bunkum”, and then to “bunk”. And if there’s bunk, it’s one’s duty to debunk. Earliest documented use: 1923.

USAGE:

“They used science to debunk myth and the paranormal -- to keep humanity safe from the real monsters.”
Michele Hauf; Taming the Hunter; Harlequin; 2017.

See more usage examples of debunk in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: