the.com/bunk
a bed stacked on a lie, since both mean nonsense and napping
means Nonsense or empty talk; also a narrow built-in bed, often one stacked above or below another.
from Two senses converge under one short word. The "nonsense" meaning is a true American original: it's short for "bunkum," itself from Buncombe County, North Carolina. The popular story here happens to be the real one — around 1820, a long-winded congressman from that district insisted on giving a pointless speech "for Buncombe," and "buncombe," trimmed to "bunk," became a byword for hot air. The "bed" sense is older and separate, possibly related to "bunker" and to Scandinavian words for a bench or platform; the two meanings only feel like one because English let them share a spelling.
- word origin
- From Buncombe County, a congressman's empty speech in 1820
- debunk
- Coined in 1923 to strip the bull from claims
- naval roots
- Bunks saved space on ships and submarines for centuries
- bunco
- Same con-artist root spawned police bunco squads
- history is bunk
- Henry Ford's famous dismissal of the past
bunk johnson — new orleans jazz trumpet pioneer, born 1879, recorded first jazz solos in 1942
bunk beds at ikea — most commonly sold bunk bed model globally, svärta frame, available in 5,000+ stores