A word that appeared in the middle of the eighteenth century, from no obvious source. Applied to a person it has the meaning of ‘fraud’ or ‘impostor’. It could be used as a serious accusation, but in Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis,...

Humbug is an archaic term meaning "hoax", or "jest". While the term was first attested in 1751 in student slang, its etymology is unknown. It is known, however, that it was used as profanity centuries ago, in places such as Great Britain. Its present...