different between offspring vs bunkum

English

Etymology

From Middle English ofspring, from Old English ofspring (“offspring, descendants, posterity”), equivalent to off- +? spring. Compare Icelandic afspringur (“offspring”). More at off, spring.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??fsp???/
• (US) enPR: äf?spr?ng, IPA^(key): /??fsp???/, /??fsp???/

Noun

offspring (plural offspring or offsprings)

1. A person's daughter(s) and/or son(s); a person's children.
2. All of a person's descendants, including further generations.
3. An animal or plant's progeny or young.
4. (figuratively) Anything produced; the result of an entity's efforts.

5. (computing) A process launched by another process.

Usage notes

• The plural offsprings is mainly used for the computing sense.

Synonyms

• (daughter(s) and/or son(s)): baby/babies, child/children, fruit of one's loins, issue (plural only), get, kid/kids
• (all descendants): binary clone, descendants, fruit of one's loins, get, lineage, progeny, seed

Antonyms

• (daughter(s) and/or son(s)): genitor (rare), parent, progenitor, father (male), mother (female)
• (descendants): ancestors, forbears/forebears, forefathers

Derived terms

• donor offspring
• grandoffspring
• parent-offspring conflict

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• buncombe

Etymology

From buncombe, from “speaking to (or for) Buncombe County, North Carolina”, a county in North Carolina named for Edward Buncombe. In 1820, Felix Walker, who represented the county in the U.S. House of Representatives, rose to address the question of admitting Missouri as a free or slave state, his first attempt to speak on the subject after nearly a month of solid debate, right before the vote was to be called. To the exasperation of colleagues, he began a long and wearisome speech, explaining that he was speaking not to Congress but "to Buncombe." He was ultimately shouted down by his colleagues, though his speech was published in a Washington paper and his persistence made "buncombe" (later respelled "bunkum") a synonym for meaningless political claptrap and later for any kind of nonsense, at first only in the jargon of Washington and then in common usage (see discussion on talk page).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b??k?m/
• Homophone: buncombe
• Hyphenation: bunk?um

Noun

bunkum (countable and uncountable, plural bunkums)

1. (slang, countable) Senseless talk; nonsense; a piece of nonsense.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense

2. (politics) Bombastic political posturing or oratorical display designed only for show or public applause. [1820s]

Derived terms

• bunk
• debunk
• hokum

References