Something About Humbug

Bah-bompa-bah, bah bah-bah.

I heard the word humbug more this year when not discussing Christmas. I asked a few people about it, and they said it’s because they've heard it more this year, too. I sincerely hope we get through the rest of the year without needing to use it and, really, well into 2021, too.  This got me thinking -- 

Humbug defines a person or object behaving deceptively or dishonestly, often as a hoax or in jest. As an expression, it is an exclamation of nonsense or gibberish. In modern usage, the word is most associated with the character Ebenezer Scrooge, created by Charles Dickens in his 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. His famous reference to Christmas, “Bah! Humbug!”, declaring Christmas to be a fraud, is commonly used in stage and screen versions and frequently appears in the original book. The word is also prominently used in the 1900 book The Wizard of Oz, in which the Scarecrow refers to the Wizard as a humbug, and the Wizard agrees.

The oldest known written uses of the word are in the book The Student (1750–1751), where it is called “a word very much in vogue with the people of taste and fashion,” and in Ferdinando Killigrew’s The Universal Jester from 1754.

I’m glad nothing mentions the musical bug who didn’t know the words. Such jokes get old.