Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Words: Humbug

Charles Dickens did like the word "Humbug". There's Scrooge's "Bah ! Humbug!", of course. In "Martin Chuzzlewit", "Shakspeare's an infernal humbug, Pip!" And in "The Pickwick Papers", "He was bound to acknowledge that, personally, he entertained the highest regard and esteem for the honourable gentleman; he had merely considered him a humbug in a Pickwickian point of view."

The origin of the word is unclear.

Stephen Colbert started a "Campaign Against Humbuggery", as a parody of Fox News Channel's "War On Christmas".

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