- to TRICKERY and TOMFOOLERY
HUMBUG, a word of the bygone era (but still recognized and used on Christmas), humbug is the common thread tying these words of deceit together. A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. It is now also often used as an exclamation to describe something as hypocritical nonsense or gibberish. When referring to a person, a humbug means a fraud or impostor, implying an element of unjustified publicity and spectacle. Humbug has an interesting collection of theories for the origin and they all focus on the illusion of shadows, the mystical forces and darkness - all of which can illustrate the concept of deceit.
The oldest known written use of the word s in the book The Student (1750) where it is called "a word very much in vogue with the people of taste and fashion.” Not much more on that. The term was described in 1751 and subsequently recorded in 1840 as nautical slang. The connection between sailor jargon and the definition is unclear. Later in 1754, Ferdinando Killigrew described it in The Universal Jester as "a choice collection of many conceits ... bon-mots and humbugs.” . The word conceit suggests a dark connection.
The word took on political connotations in the 18th century that made it part of the vocabulary of the newspapers. This debate of politics creates a connection to the politically minded Charles Dickens who in turn made the word famous with Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. His famous exclamation of "Bah! Humbug!", declaring Christmas to be a fraud, still echoes in our homes today. The literary sense of the word was subsequently used at the turn of the century in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which the Scarecrow refers to the Wizard as a humbug.
There are many theories as to the origin of the term, none of which has been proven:
WORD TRACING
Possibly roots and connections include:
I did find one interesting illustration that ties the word to the concepts of deception, fraud, theft, mystic forces, shadows and darkness. This sums up the different senses of the word nicely:
“Humbugging, in the context as an act intended to both deceive and distract, was the subject of Thomas Rowlandson's satirical cartoon of 1800, which was titled Humbugging Or Raising The Devil. The cartoon depicts a bogus wizard who is raising his wand to conjure up a hideous-looking figure that rises from a trap door in the floor amidst a swirling cloud of smoke.The grotesque spectacle is being watched by a terror-stricken man whose distracted state is being exploited by a woman who is picking his pocket from behind the curtain.”
That was a humbug of an etymology! Let’s look at the words that flow from the concept.
The oldest known written use of the word s in the book The Student (1750) where it is called "a word very much in vogue with the people of taste and fashion.” Not much more on that. The term was described in 1751 and subsequently recorded in 1840 as nautical slang. The connection between sailor jargon and the definition is unclear. Later in 1754, Ferdinando Killigrew described it in The Universal Jester as "a choice collection of many conceits ... bon-mots and humbugs.” . The word conceit suggests a dark connection.
The word took on political connotations in the 18th century that made it part of the vocabulary of the newspapers. This debate of politics creates a connection to the politically minded Charles Dickens who in turn made the word famous with Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. His famous exclamation of "Bah! Humbug!", declaring Christmas to be a fraud, still echoes in our homes today. The literary sense of the word was subsequently used at the turn of the century in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which the Scarecrow refers to the Wizard as a humbug.
There are many theories as to the origin of the term, none of which has been proven:
WORD TRACING
Possibly roots and connections include:
- The Norse word hume meaning “dark air” and the associated word word hum, meaning “night” or “shadow”
- The references to mystical dark forces are reflected in the biblical Middle English word bugge meaning “bogey” or “apparitions.” In the cognate of the German word bögge, böggel-mann means a "goblin.”
- The Old Norse based, Icelandic word húm meaning “twilight”
- The word hómi in Faroese meaning “unclear”
- The Old Swedish word humi meaning “dark suspicion” which has roots documented from 1541. From this word comes the verb hymla meaning “to conceal, hide, not commit to the truth.”
- According to the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in the 17th century, to hum was “to deceive.”
- And the Welsh word bwg means a "ghost.” The connection to ghosts or goblins can be tied to Dickens and his Christmas ghosts.
- In an 1898 etymology tracing, it was proposed that the word hum, meaning “to murmur applause” and the word bug, meaning ‘spectre” creates another connection.
- Expanding into the romance languages, a possible root could be in the Italian word uomo bugiardo, which literally means “lying man.” There was considerable Italian influence on English at the time (e.g. Shakespeare's Italian-based plays 150 years before the first recorded use of humbug). This origin creates another connection to fraud and deceit.
- There are other references to “worthless money” and “false coins” but there is no evidence of a clear connection to the term except the illustration of fraud.
- Finally, a modern theory says bah humbug to all that and suggests that the word actually refers to a humming bug, defined as something small and inconsequential, such as a cricket, that makes a lot of noise. There was a supporting reference in Norton Juster's novel The Phantom Tollbooth, of a large beetle-like insect known as the Humbug, who was hardly ever right about anything. No other notable support.
I did find one interesting illustration that ties the word to the concepts of deception, fraud, theft, mystic forces, shadows and darkness. This sums up the different senses of the word nicely:
“Humbugging, in the context as an act intended to both deceive and distract, was the subject of Thomas Rowlandson's satirical cartoon of 1800, which was titled Humbugging Or Raising The Devil. The cartoon depicts a bogus wizard who is raising his wand to conjure up a hideous-looking figure that rises from a trap door in the floor amidst a swirling cloud of smoke.The grotesque spectacle is being watched by a terror-stricken man whose distracted state is being exploited by a woman who is picking his pocket from behind the curtain.”
That was a humbug of an etymology! Let’s look at the words that flow from the concept.
HUMBUGGERY OF WORDS
BAMBOOZLE - to deceive or undermine
BAMBOSH - To bamboozle; to deceive with nonsense.
BEGUILE - to deceive or trick (or to lure - notably by beautiful women who prey on vulnerable men)
CHICANERY - the use of trickery to achieve a political, financial, or legal purpose.
CLAPTRAP - showy language designed to gain praise; nonsense
COZENAGE - the practice of deception; trickery. Alludes to a source of black magic.
FIDDLE - swindle; to deceive by altering or manipulating circumstances
FLEECE - to perpetrate extortion or fraud (or to charge excessively)
FLIMFLAM - subject someone to fraud or deceit
GAFF - a swindle, trick, or gimmick; to deceive or set up a fraud
GAMMON - to feign an action; perpetrate a hoax on; nonsense, rubbish
JIGGERY-POKERY- deceptive or manipulative humbug
JUGGLERY - deception or trickery; in verb form (juggle), to deceive or trick
KIDOLOGY - deceptive trickery and utter nonsense
LEGERDEMAIN - to deceive by distraction or misleading (literally, “sleight of hand”)
MULCT - to defraud or obtain by fraud (also, a fine, or to fine)
NOBBLE - to cheat (such as drugging a racehorse)
PHONUS-BOLONUS - exaggerated trickery or nonsense
SKULDUGGERY - underhanded or unscrupulous behavior; trickery.
SNOOKER - to cheat or swindle
SOPHISTRY - argument or reasoning intended to deceive
TARRADIDDLE - lie; perhaps derived from diddle meaning “to cheat”
THIMBLERIG - a trick; to cheat (generally in a slight of hand move)
TRUMPERY - deception; trickery; showy nonsense
