Etymology

debunk

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Today it means: To discredit, or expose to ridicule the falsehood or the exaggerated claims of something; to refute. Full definition →

English bunk ← Latin dē- ← Proto-Italic *dē
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*de
  2. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
  3. Proto-Italic*dē
  4. Latindē
  5. Latindē-
  6. Englishde-
  7. Englishbunkumclip.
  8. Englishbunk
  9. English todaydebunk

From de- (“away”) + bunk (“nonsense”) (from bunkum, from Buncombe County) 1923.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.