Bah humbug: it’s older than Dickens

The problem is that his words, usually said in jest, have lost much of their impact – a bit like the boy who cried wolf too often.

Looking over somebody else’s shoulder recently, I saw my friend’s ­latest tirade.

I couldn’t resist replying by email and so my letter said nothing but “the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the grass is growing…”

My friend, perhaps realising he had done little more than get out of bed the wrong side, sent a reply that said ­simply “bah humbug”.

Humbug.

Now there’s a word we still see occasionally but don’t think much about.

Many of us associate it with Charles Dickens, but the word is much older.

It might have come about from the word hum, which meant uncertainty, and bug, something causing fear or anxiety.

My big dictionary describes it as a slang word that came into fashion 

in the early 1700s, perhaps around 1750, but says the origins of the word have been lost even before the word became common enough to excite attention.

An explanation in 1751 said the word was in vogue with people of taste and fashion.

This definition added that the word made up the sum total of the wit, sense and judgement of such people. To me, that sounds a bit like having a bob each way.

It became a word to represent a trick, or sham, and a person who ­practises deception.

Eventually it came to mean to delude, to hoax, to make less progress than expected or to be an imposter.

It became associated with such words as “odious, horrible, detestable and shocking”.

Charles Dickens used the word humbug a few times, but the ­expression bah humbug is best ­associated with Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

My copy of the book has the first use on page 5: “Bah”, said Scrooge. “Humbug.”

In 1777 a Mr Humbog advertised that he was available to call on ladies “on the shortest notice” to tell them about his academy, but as his name was spelt slightly differently, you probably don’t want to know what was discussed when he called on them.

I can’t find any example of Shakespeare having used the word humbug.

But Randolph Churchill once said: “the whole legislature of the government has been a gigantic humbug.”

My 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue says humbug means to deceive. 

But then the book goes on a page later to mention the recent ­meeting of the Venerable Society of Humbugs.

And if you want to know what a humbug does – he engages in the art of humbuggability.

These days a humbug, according to the big dictionary, is a person who fools about.

I think we could resurrect the Venerable Society of Humbugs. 

I know of a few candidates for ­membership.

By the way, this is my 965th column since I started about 20 years ago.

Some people have said I must be ­making lots of money but I can say truthfully I haven’t made a cent. 

It’s a hobby. 

Of course, I am open to bribes …

lbword@midcoast.com.au