What A Load of Bunk! (minicast)

A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2007

⏱️ 4 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Few are the words whose origins we know for certain, but “bunk” is one of them. From the mountains of North Carolina to the halls of Congress to everyday language, Martha scoops the skinny. Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Everything is fuel for your creativity with the Lenovo Yoga laptop series.
0:04.3	From the people you meet to the creators you follow, it all comes together with
0:08.0	Lenovo Yoga.
0:09.0	Plus, you get a 50 pound travel voucher and a shot at winning an awesome trip to New York and a Motorola
0:14.6	razor 40 Ultra. Check out the Lenovo Yoga series with laptops made for creatives at
0:19.7	Lenovo.com slash Yoga. limited time only terms and conditions apply.
0:23.8	Engineered to do it all. That's a laptop evolved with Intel Evo Platform. Welcome to the Summer Podcast Edition of Away With Words. I'm Martha Barnett. My co-host
0:45.0	Grant Barrett is off showing his baby boy Guthrie how to build his very own website.
0:50.3	Hey Grant, if you're listening I see where the domain name cutest baby in the whole wide universe.
0:56.0	com is still available.
0:58.0	A lot of you write to us here at a way with words asking us to debunk this or that linguistic question. But what about
1:05.2	the word debunk itself? Where do we get such a strange word? Well, it's an interesting story,
1:11.7	but to understand it you have to dial the time machine back all the way to
1:16.1	1820. Now at that time there was a debate raging in Congress. The question was, should they admit Missouri, which was a slave
1:24.9	state, to the Union? And ultimately this big debate resulted in the so-called
1:30.7	Missouri compromise, which I'm sure you remember from history class right?
1:34.8	In any case that week debating on the House floor was one Felix Walker.
1:39.8	Now Walker was a congressman from North Carolina. He represented the western part of that state. It was a district that included towns like Asheville in Buncombe County. Now that's Buncombe County, North Carolina, B-U-N-C-O-M-B-E.
1:55.0	Remember that.
1:56.5	And when Walker's turn came to speak, he started talking,
2:00.5	and then he talked some more, and then he talked some more, and then he got off the subject and started talking about all these other things and he just kept on talking and talking and talking and
2:07.8	And finally his irritated colleagues begged him to stop at which point Walker stopped just long enough to say,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from A Way with Words, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of A Way with Words and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.