Political Discourse: Bunk and Baginage

As the 2014 political season comes to an end in the U.S. there are several words that come to mind: buncombe and badinage. The latter I came across while reading the letters of S.J. Perelman, the former while reading Mark Twain’s Puddinhead Wilson.

Buncombe is the more appropriate for political campaigns, especially this year when the Senate race on North Carolina could determine who controls the senate. Here’s the story behind the word:

On Feb. 25, 1820 congress was in session to decide on the statehood of Missouri. As the final committee vote was about to take place a North Carolina congressman, Felix Walker, rose to address the question. Apparently he was known for his both lengthy and boring speeches, because the House of Representatives very quickly started requesting the “question be called” and the vote taken. Walker’s response was that he wanted to get something into the record that could demonstrate to his home district that he was active and involved. His words were “I shall not be speaking to the House, but to Buncombe,” a county in North Carolina that he represented.

By 1838 bunkum became the word used generically for a representative’s home district. By 1841 it became American slang for nonsense. By 1900 the word was shortened to bunk, now an ejaculation expressing a strong feeling that the speaker is saying nonsense.

Bunkum is now defined as any insincere speech, particularly speech that is designed to impress a politician’s constituency. (Does “You can keep your doctor” come to mind?) While you can still find buncombe, particularly in writings pre-1900, it is accepted enough as a word to not need capitalization.

At the other end of political discourse is the word badinage. Badinage, as you might discern from its pronunciation (dictionary.com indicates its preferred pronunciation is with emphasis on the third syllable that it conveys as the soft g sound –ahzh) is French in origin. The French word badinage means playfulness or jesting, from the French word for joke badiner. The French word came from an Old Provençal word for yawn or gape: badar.  The Old Provençal word came from the Late Latin word of the same meaning, badare. Badinage has been used in English since the 1650s, and is a noun for jesting or teasing banter.

Banter is a noun for playful or teasing remarks, so it could be synonymous with badinage. Banter came into use in English in the 1670s as a verb, and by the 1680s was also used as a noun. According to Jonathan Swift it came from London street slang. 

And just to complete the circle, if you were not aware, Jonathan Swift, renowned for his satire and parody (words for another week) Gulliver’s Travels, was also a political pamphleteer for both the Whigs and the Tories. Some thought he engaged in buncombe, although the term was not to be coined during Swift’s lifetime.