Humbug

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Humbug is an architect term meaning "hoax", or "jest". While the term was first attested in 1751 in student slang, its etymology is unknown. It is known, however, that it was used as profanity centuries ago, in places such as Great Britain. Its present meaning as an exclamation is closer to "nonsense", or "gibberish", while as a noun, a humbug refers to a fraud, impostor, or a person who is habitually mean. The latter interpretation is derived from the word's association with Ebenezer Scrooge, a character created by Charles Dickens. In several East-Indian dialects, the word is borrowed from English, and used to mean "to deceive" or "to cheat". In Australian Aboriginal English, humbug means to pester or annoy.

"The witch, in gypsy as in other lore, is a haunting terror of the night. It has not, that I am aware, ever been conjectured that the word Humbug is derived from the Norse hum, meaning night, or shadows (tenebræ) (JONÆO, "Icelandic Latin glossary in Niall's Saga"), and bog, or bogey, termed in several old editions of the Bible a bug, or "bugges." And as bogey came to mean a mere scarecrow, so the hum-bugges or nightly terrors became synonymes for feigned frights. "A humbug, a false alarm, a bug-bear" ("Dean Milles MS." HALLIWELL). The fact that bug is specialty applied to a nocturnal apparition, renders the reason for the addition of hum very evident." - Charles Godfrey Leland, Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling [1891], Chapter X [1]

[edit] Popular culture

The exclamationatory "Bah, humbug!" has become associated with Ebenezer Scrooge in the story book, A Christmas Carol and a dismissive attitude towards Christmas, characterizing the holiday itself as a fraud. This has years later been spoofed by Mr Burns saying "Bah, humbug!" in the Simpsons episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious"

In Stephen King's Dark Tower series, many of the villains turn out to be humbugs (or bumhugs as the series says); characters who appear menacing but are vanquished with little to no fanfare.

Both meanings of the term were used for comic effect in Blackadder's Christmas Carol. Ebenezer Blackadder's first line is "Humbug, humbug!", which is heard by Mr Baldrick in the streets, making it seem as if he is in a foul mood. However, Blackadder enters his shop with a bag of sweets, saying kindly "Humbug, Mr Baldrick?".

In Norton Juster's book The Phantom Tollbooth, the Humbug is anthropomorphized as an insectlike character who makes grandiose claims about himself and his ancestry. ("As my great-great grandfather, George Washington Humbug used to say--")

In Charles Dickens's Great Expectations about old ladies and the gentleman at Mrs Havisham's young Pip said "... the snowplow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs".

Graham Cluley's computer game Humbug contains a mint humbug.

The Little Humbugs - part human part bug these little people from the forest are sent by Mother Nature to teach the human world that they need to start looking after the the environment. The creations are from children's author/illustrator Marghanita Hughes.[2].

The phrase "Bah, humbug!" Was often used by Dickens' grandfather.

In the popular MMORPG Guild Wars, during the Wintersday Event 2006 enemies called Humbugs spawned during the quest The Greatest Snowman Ever Made.

To celebrate the Christmas holidays the Sony Entertainment Company MMOFPS Planetside users could make Santa hats visible on all user avatars by entering the word "Humbug" into the chat box.

[edit] References

Black, Max. "The Prevalence of Humbug" from The Prevalence of Humbug and Other Essays. Cornell University Press. 1983.
Harry Frankfurt, Princeton University "On Bullshit", 1986, essay