Humbug, Follie, and Varietee.”
Gradually from this time the word began to assume a place in periodical literature, and in novels not written by squeamish or over-precise authors. In the preface to a flat, and, I fear, unprofitable poem, entitled, The Reign of HUMBUG, a Satire, 8vo., 1836, the author thus apologises for the use of the word—“I have used the term HUMBUG to designate this principle [wretched sophistry of life generally], considering that it is now adopted into our language as much as the words dunce, jockey, cheat, swindler, &c., which were formerly only colloquial terms.” A correspondent, who in a late number of Adersaria ingeniously traced bombast to the inflated Doctor Paracelsus Bombast, considers that HUMBUG may, in like manner, be derived from Homberg, the distinguished chemist of the court of the Duke of Orleans, who, according to the following passage from Bishop Berkeley’s “Siris,” was an ardent and successful seeker after the philosopher’s stone!
“§ 194.—Of this there cannot be a better proof than the experiment of Monsieur Homberg, WHO MADE GOLD OF MERCURY BY INTRODUCING LIGHT INTO ITS PORES, but at such trouble and expense, that, I suppose, nobody will try the experiment for profit. By this injunction of light and mercury, both bodies became fixed, and produced a third different to either, to wit, real gold. For the truth of which FACT I refer to the memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences.”—Berkeley’s Works, vol. ii., p. 366, (Wright’s edition).
The universal use of this term is remarkable; in California there is a town called Humbug Flat—a name which gives a significant hint of the acuteness of the first settler.
HUM-DRUM, tedious, tiresome, boring; “a society of gentlemen who used to meet near the Charter House, or at the King’s Head, St. John’s street. They were characterised by less mystery and more pleasantry than the Freemasons.”—Bacchus and Venus, 1737. In the West a low cart.
HUMP, to botch, or spoil.
HUMP UP, “to have one’s HUMP UP,” to be cross or ill-tempered—like a cat with its back set up.—See [MONKEY].
HUMPTY DUMPTY, short and thick.
HUNCH, to shove, or jostle.
HUNTER PITCHING, cockshies, or three throws a penny.—See [COCKSHY].