debunk 的词源

“揭露虚假或荒谬的主张或情感”，1923年，来自de- + bunk (n.2)；显然最早由美国小说家威廉·伍德沃德（1874-1950）在他的畅销书《Bunk》中使用，其概念是“去掉事物中的胡言乱语”。哈罗德·U·福克纳的《殖民历史揭穿》[《哈珀杂志》，1925年12月]推动了这一词汇的流行，而该文章本身很快被揭穿，这个词在20世纪20年代中期在美国流行。相关词：Debunked；debunking。

Wets and Drys, Fundamentalists and Modernists, are busily engaged in debunking one another to the delight and edification of a public which divides its time between automobiling and listening-in. Is it art, or education, or religion that you prefer? You have only to get the right station and what you last heard about the matter will be cleverly debunked while you wait. [Carl Vernon Tower, "Genealogy 'Debunked,' " in Annual Reports of the Tower Genealogical Society, 1925]

湿派和干派、原教旨主义者和现代主义者忙于揭穿彼此，以取悦和启发一个在驾车和收听之间分配时间的公众。你更喜欢艺术、教育还是宗教？你只需找到正确的电台，关于此事的最新听闻将在你等待时被巧妙地揭穿。[卡尔·弗农·塔沃尔，《家谱“揭穿”》，塔沃尔家谱协会年度报告，1925年]

自然地，这在英国遭到了谴责。

The origin of to debunk is doubtless the same as that of American jargon in general — the inability of an ill-educated and unintelligent democracy to assimilate long words. Its intrusion in our own tongue is due partly to the odious novelty of the word itself, and partly to the prevailing fear that to write exact English nowadays is to be put down as a pedant and a prig. [letter to the editor, London Daily Telegraph, March 2, 1935, cited in Mencken, "The American Language"]

to debunk 的起源无疑与美国行话的起源相同——一个教育水平低下且不聪明的民主社会无法吸收长词。它侵入我们语言的原因部分在于这个词本身令人厌恶的新奇性，部分在于普遍的恐惧，即如今写准确的英语会被视为学究和自命不凡的人。[致编辑的信，《伦敦每日电讯报》，1935年3月2日，引用自门肯，《美国语言》]