#186 bunkum/buncombe

bunkum/buncombe- empty talk; nonsense; (chiefly from U.S.) empty or insincere speechmaking by a politician to please voters or gain publicity

- C19 after Buncombe, a county in North Carolina, alluded to in an inane speech by a Congressional representative about 1820

If one compares the serious tone of this speech with the hard cider and coon-skin buncombe of the Harrison campaign of 1840, and its lofty philosophical thought with the humorous declamation of the Taylor campaign of 1848, the speaker's advance in mental development at once becomes apparent. (about Abraham Lincoln)

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