Nonsense, insincere talk, or statements made just for show rather than to communicate truth.
Named after Buncombe County, North Carolina, after Congressman Felix Walker (1789-1828) gave a long, meaningless speech in 1820, claiming he was speaking 'for Buncombe.' The word satirized empty political rhetoric and spread through American English.
It's amazing that one politician's pointless speech from 1820 gave English a permanent word for BS—'buncombe' became so common that it was eventually shortened to 'bunk,' which we still use today!
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