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Posted by Viv on Monday, December 19, 2011 · Leave a Comment
- Measly: 1680s, “Affected with measles”; Sense of “meager and contemptible” first recorded 1864 in British slang. (source)
- Hokum: 1917, theater slang, “melodramatic, exaggerated acting,” probably formed on model of bunkum, and perhaps influenced by or based on hocus-pocus. (source)
- Bunk: 1900, short for bunkum, phonetic spelling of Buncombe, a county in North Carolina. The usual story of its origin is this: At the close of the protracted Missouri statehood debates, on Feb. 25, 1820, N.C. Representative Felix Walker began what promised to be a “long, dull, irrelevant speech,” and he resisted calls to cut it short by saying he was bound to say something that could appear in the newspapers in the home district and prove he was on the job. “I shall not be speaking to the House,” he confessed, “but to Buncombe.” Bunkum has been Amer.Eng. slang for “nonsense” since 1847. (source)
- The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office said Friday an enzyme present in cheese and possibly some types of dough appeared to have yielded false results that led to cocaine charges against Antonio Hernandez Carranza. Hernandez spent four days in the Buncombe County jail until state lab results showed the substances in the back of his truck were tortilla dough, cheese and other food. (source)
- Hyperbolic: 1640s (iperbolical is from early 15c.), from Gk. hyperbolikos “extravagant,” from hyperbole “extravagance,” lit. “a throwing beyond”. Geometric sense is from 1670s. (source)
- Bunk: 1758, probably a shortened from bunker, Scottish for “a seat, bench,” of uncertain origin, possibly from a Scandinavian source (cf. O.Swed. bunke “boards used to protect the cargo of a ship”). (Source)
- Sartorial: 1823, from Mod.L. sartorius, from L.L. sartor “tailor,” lit. “patcher, mender,” from L. sart-, pp. stem of sarcire “to patch, mend.” Sartorius as the name of the long leg muscle is because it is used in crossing the legs to bring them into the position needed to sit like a tailor. Related: Sartorially. (source)
- Porky’s: No Matching Terms Found (source)
