humbug

B2 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈhəmˌbəɡ/ UK /ˈhʌmbʌɡ/ See IPA manual

Freq #25417

Meanings

1

noun
Dishonest talk or behaviour meant to trick people; nonsense.

He dismissed the salesman's promises as complete humbug.
2

noun
A person who deceives others by pretending to be something they are not.

The so-called expert turned out to be a humbug.
3

noun
A hard, striped peppermint sweet.

Grandma always kept a bag of humbugs in her coat pocket.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms humbugs

Derived forms humbuggablehumbuggerhumbuggeryhumbugginghumbuggishhumbuggyhumbugismunhumbugged

Etymology

Origin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) An obvious lie”), or from hum (“(dialectal and slang) to cajole; delude; impose on”) + bug (“a goblin, a spectre”). In his Slang Dictionary (1864), English bibliophile and publisher John Camden Hotten (1832–1873) suggested a link to the name of the German city of Hamburg, “from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the w…

Topics

People & Society

External links

# humbug

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈhəmˌbəɡ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈhʌmbʌɡ/
**Frequency rank:** 25417

## Meanings
1. Dishonest talk or behaviour meant to trick people; nonsense.
2. A person who deceives others by pretending to be something they are not.
3. A hard, striped peppermint sweet.

## Examples
- He dismissed the salesman's promises as complete humbug.
- The so-called expert turned out to be a humbug.
- Grandma always kept a bag of humbugs in her coat pocket.

## Derived Forms
- humbuggable
- humbugger
- humbuggery
- humbugging
- humbuggish
- humbuggy
- humbugism
- unhumbugged

## Etymology
Origin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) An obvious lie”), or from hum (“(dialectal and slang) to cajole; delude; impose on”) + bug (“a goblin, a spectre”). In his Slang Dictionary (1864), English bibliophile and publisher John Camden Hotten (1832–1873) suggested a link to the name of the German city of Hamburg, “from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the w…

## AI Etymology
Humbug is of unknown origin; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) An obvious lie”), or from hum (“(dialectal and slang) to cajole; delude; impose on”) + bug (“a goblin, a spectre”). The analysis is mainly morphological: the modern nominal form is built from the named elements. In current use, the main senses are “Dishonest talk or behaviour meant to trick people; nonsense” and “A person who deceives others by pretending to be something they are not”.

## Topics
- People & Society

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