Bunker, subs. (common).—Beer. For synonyms, see Drinks and Swipes.
Bunkum, Buncombe, Buncome, subs. (American).—Talking merely for
talking’s sake; claptrap of all kinds; gas; tall talk. The employment
of the word in its original sense of insincere political speaking or
claptrap is ascribed to a member of Congress, Felix Walker, from
Buncombe County, North Carolina, who explained that he was merely
talking for buncombe, when his fellow members could not understand why
he was making a speech. Judge Haliburton (Sam Slick) in explaining this
word says that ‘all over America, every place likes to hear of its
member of Congress, and see their speeches; and, if they don’t, they
send a piece to the paper, inquirin’ if their members died a natural
death, or was skivered with a bowie-knife, for they hante seen his
speeches lately, and his friends are anxious to know his fate. Our free
and enlightened citizens don’t approbate silent members; it don’t seem
to them as if Squashville, or Punkinsville, or Lumbertown was right
represented, unless Squashville, or Punkinsville, or Lumbertown makes
itself heard and known, ay, and feared too. So every feller, in bounden
duty, talks, and talks big too, and the smaller the State, the louder,
bigger, and fiercer its members talk. Well, when a critter talks for
talk’s sake, jist to have a speech in the paper to send to home, and
not for any other airthly puppus but electioneering, our folks call it
bunkum.’
The term is now universal on both sides of the water, and, indeed,
wherever English is spoken. So much is this the case that the
expression may now fairly claim a permanent place in the language. The
primary meaning has been somewhat enlarged. ‘That’s all buncombe’ is
equivalent to ‘That’s all nonsense’ or ‘an absurdity.’
Also used attributively; for example, a bunkum proclamation, bunkum
logic, bunkum politicians, etc.
1841. Richmond Compiler, Aug. 17. He was not speaking to the House
but to bunkum.
1859. Sala, Tw. Round the Clock, 2 a.m., par. 9. These tales, full
of sound and fury, told by honourable idiots full of unutterable
‘bunkum’ (an Americanism I feel constrained to use, as signifying
nothingness, ineftably inept and irremediably fire-perforated
windbaggery, and sublimated cucumber sunbeams hopelessly eclipsed
into Dis)—
1861. Blackwood’s Mag., April. ‘This parable, explaining the origin
of buncombe, would form a very useful text to set up, handsomely
illustrated, over the Speaker’s chair in Parliament.’
1862. New York Tribune, Feb. 11. Despatch from Kansas. General
Sibley was within thirty miles of Fort Craig, with twenty-five
hundred Texans, with artillery, and had issued a bunkum
proclamation.
1884. Echo, May 12, p. 4, col. 2. It will be seen that the
wonderful tales about the favourites were like the reports about
Richmond’s lameness, all bunkum.
1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, March 3. This thing of trying to rule a
husband is all buncombe; it can’t be done. You can coax most men,
bribe some, and govern a very few, but that vulgar rubbing of the
fur the right way wins every time.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 18 Oct., p. 6, col. 2. His explanation was
contained in the three words, ‘Bosh, rubbish, and bunkum.’ Was it
not time, asked the speaker, that the ‘great unwashed’ should
declare that the ‘great unpaid’ were no longer at liberty to
oppress them?
Bunky, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Awkward; ill-finished.
Bunnick, verb (common).—To settle; to dispose of.
1886. Punch, 17 July, p. 25. ’Owsom-ever we’ve bunnicked up
Gladsting, a barney all patriots enjoy.
Bunny Grub, subs. (Cheltenham College).—Green vegetables, such as
cabbage, lettuce, and the like. [Obviously from bunny, a pet name for a
rabbit, + grub, a slang term for provender, i.e., food akin to that
upon which rabbits are fed.] At the Royal Military Academy and other
schools an equivalent is grass (q.v.).
Bunse.—See Bunce.
Bun-Struggle or Bun-Worry, subs. (military).—A tea meeting given to
soldiers. For synonymous terms, see Tea fight.
Bunt.—See Bunce.
Bunter, subs. (harlotry).—1. A prostitute; one who adds theft to her
other vocation; also a term of contempt for any low woman. See,
however, quot. from Dyche, 1748, and Mayhew, 1851. For analogous terms,
see Barrack-hack.
1705–7. E. Ward, Hudibras Rediv., II., ii. (1715), 25. Punks,
Strolers, Market Dames, and Bunters. [M.]
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xlvii. And asked with some heat,
if he thought I had spent the evening in a cellar with chairmen and
bunters.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bunter (s.), one who goes about
the streets to gather rags, bones, etc.
1759. Walpole, Parish Register.
Here Fielding met his bunter Muse,
And, as they quaff’d the fiery juice,
Droll Nature stamp’d each lucky hit,
With unimaginable wit.
1763. British Magazine, vol. IV., p. 542. I heard a bunter at the
Horse-Guards ... swear she would not venture into the Park.
1765. Goldsmith, Essays, x. The bunters who swagger in the streets
of London.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 158.
They were known by the name of bunters, which signifies properly
gatherers of rags.
2. Explained by quotation. [Bunter here may be a confused variant of
bunker, one who runs away or ‘slopes.’]
1851. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 223. There is a
class of women technically known as bunters, who take lodgings, and
after staying some time run away without paying their rent.
Burdon’s Hotel, subs. (thieves’).—Whitecross Street Prison, of which
the Governor was a Mr. Burdon. Almost every prison has a nickname of
this kind, either from the name of the Governor, or from some local
circumstance. The Queen’s Bench has an immense number of names—spike,
park, etc.; and every Chief-Justice stands godfather to it. For full
list of such names, see Cage.
1861. Dutton Cook, Paul Foster’s Daughter, ch. ii. ‘David, be
respectable, whatever you are, be respectable, and Burdon’s hotel
is not for you to sojourn at.’
Burick or Burerk, subs. (old).—Latterly applied to any woman or ‘lady,’
especially one showily dressed, but formerly a thief’s term for a
prostitute.
1819. J. H. Vaux, Memoirs. Burick is a prostitute, or common woman.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 262. If they
can meet with the burerk (mistress) or the young ladies, etc.
1889. Answers, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. Let him ask the loafer what
his ‘Monekear’ (name) is; whether he can drink a ‘shant of patter’
(pint of beer); whether he finds the ‘bone’ or ‘gammy’—that is good
or bad as regards begging; and which sex gives him most—the
‘burerks’ (ladies), or the ‘Toffs’ (gentlemen).
Amongst French equivalents for a well-dressed woman may be mentioned
une panuche (this name is also applied to a prostitute living in a
brothel); une dubuge; une faraude (the masculine form, un faraud,
signifies a vulgar fellow proud of smart clothes—a snob, a swell).
Burke, verb (military).—To dye the moustache and whiskers. [Burke
properly is to smother or hush up, and the allusion in the military
term is to the practice which once prevailed in smart regiments of
dyeing or smothering the natural colour of the hair for the sake of
uniformity. The regulations at one time as regards the style of wearing
the hair were very stringent and precise.]
Burn, verb (thieves).—To cheat; to swindle.
Burnanded, verb (? nonce word).—To pilfer plots (of plays, novels,
etc.). [Probably only a nonce word; a formation on the same lines as
‘Burke,’ ‘Boycott,’ etc., from the name of Mr. F. Burnand, the editor
of Punch.]
1882. Echo, Feb. 11, p. 3. The American papers continue to attack
the play [The Colonel] vigorously. One of the journals there has
invented a new verb to signify the pilfering of plots. ‘Burnanded’
is the term.
Burn Crust, subs. (old).—A jocular name for a baker. Cf., Master of the
mint for a gardener; Bung for a brewer; Ball of wax for a shoemaker;
Quill-driver for a clerk; Snip for a tailor, etc.
Burned. To be burned, verb (old).—To be infected with a venereal
disease.—See Burning.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He was sent out a
sacrifice, and came home a burnt offering; saying of seamen who
have caught the venereal disease abroad.
Burner, subs. (old).—1. A card-sharper.