Where did the word 'humbug' originally come from ? (the word associated with christmas)
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I think it's associated with Christmas just 'cause he says it a lot in "A Christmas Carol". He basically meant it to mean "This is bullshit, I hate this holiday". Wikipedia says it meant "Hoax or jest".
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It's a lot older than Dickens' story. It was first recorded as student slang in 1751. Who coined it and what is was based on, no one knows. My guess is that it resembles the sound of someone muttering something possibly vulgar. But somehow, it just caught on and survived almost a hundred years until Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in 1843. It probably would have entirely disappeared from use long ago if it were not for Dickens' story.
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