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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Today, I came across the word “debunct.” It looked to me as having to mean “defunct,” but it is not very frequent typing error to substitute “b” for “f,” and it sounds very much like “debunked,” so I looked further, and indeed, the great interwebs is full of the word “debunct”.
Some quotes: – Asked me for no ID besides my now debunct card. – Errr… you know of course that the “Priory of Sion” was debunct decades ago. – Otherwise you you would have known that I debunct that version of the rumor.
And then it appears some people actually think the verb is “to debunct:” – We need to debunct and chastise the idiotic and braindead libereral mind set. – So that debunct’s that theory. – It’s known that it’s easy for them to debunct the information by using a persons very own imagination to fill in the gaps
So let me ask you: is this just bad, bad spelling, is it an eggcorn, or something else?
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This is a fascinating one… the way people are using the word really does seem to combine debunk and defunct in many of your examples. I think I would classify it as a reshaping or idiom blend (?) maybe, though, rather than as an eggcorn.
Feeling quite combobulated.
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This one is certainly a difficult one to get a handle on. I’ll contribute what I can, but it’s by no means definitive…
What’s bizarre about debunct in the first place is that it’s a more complicated spelling than the original term (debunked). Usually eggcorns don’t trend in that direction. The ending -unct suggests that the utterer is probably aware of similar words like defunct.
You’d think anyone sophisticated enough to construct a word like debunct would be smart enough not to use it, so one has to wonder whether it’s an intentional blending of defunct and bunk(ed). It sure has a hip sense to it.
Perhaps we need to have a closer look at the word bunk—which originates from bunkum or buncombe and means “nonsense”. According to one dictionary it derives from “the defense of a seemingly irrelevant speech made by its congressional representative that he was speaking to Buncombe” (a county of N.C.) Clearly no one ever conjures up this original image when they use “bunk.”
In spite of the loss of the original imagery, I’m not sure there is any replacement imagery. Rather, there is more of a reshaping of debunked toward defunct—except that debunct isn’t used as an adjective but retains the verb usage of debunked.
So what could be going on here? How can someone hearing past tense verb or a past participle mistake the sense for a present tense verb?
TV.com Forums – Kellie Pickler on Idol
So that debunct’s that theory. Maybe Kellie should appear on Tyra Banks’ show and end that theory…just like Katherine McPhee did. ...
www.tv.com/american-idol/show/11307/kellie-pickl… – 54k – Similar pages
In other instances, eye dialect seems to be in play:
Christians in SF
Now religeon (Christianity) has debunct many of its own faith delema over the … The Big Bang frieghtened a lot of people (debunct a religious myth and …
www.adherents.com/lit/sf_christians_in_sf.html – 41k – Similar pages
http://www.adherents.com/lit/sf_christians_in_sf.html
But I’ll stop here because I don’t have a theory which draws me close enough to a conclusion.
Last edited by jorkel (2008-03-19 15:05:43)
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