Bull. A papal edict, so called on account of the bulla, or seal.
Bull and Gate. An inn sign, corrupted from “Boulogne Gate,” touching the siege of Boulogne and its harbour by Henry VIII. in 1544.
Bulgaria. A corruption of Volgaria, the country of the Volsci.
Bull-dog. A dog originally employed in the brutal sport of bull-baiting. The name is also given to one of the two attendants of the proctor at a university while going his rounds by night.
Bullion State. Missouri, after Thomas Hart Benton, who, when representing this state in Congress, merited the nickname of “Old Bullion,” from his spirited advocacy of a gold and silver currency instead of “Greenbacks” or paper.
Bullyrag. See “[Ragging].”
Bullyruffian. A corruption of the Bellerophon, the vessel on which Napoleon surrendered after the battle of Waterloo.
Bungalow. From the Bengalese bangla, a wooden house of one storey surrounded by a verandah.
Bunhill Fields. Not from the Great Plague pit in Finsbury, but from the cart-loads of human bones shot here when the charnel-house of St Paul’s Churchyard was pulled down in 1549.
Bunkum. Originally a Congressman’s speech, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” An oratorial flight not intended to carry a proposal, but to catch popular applause. The representative for Buncombe, in North Carolina, occupied the time of the house at Washington so long with a meaningless speech that many members left the hall. Asked his reason for such a display of empty words, he replied: “I was not speaking to the House, but to Buncombe.”