Humbug

The word is borrowed from English, where it was fashionable around 1750 as a slang word. The further etymology is uncertain and the subject of numerous more or less plausible theories. Since 1835, the word also appears in Germany, for example, when Annette von Droste- in one of her letters writes " humbug, as the English say ."

Famous Quotes

On October 16, 1846 William Thomas Green Morton anesthetized patients Gilbert Abbott using his invention, the etheric sphere, so that the surgeon John Collins Warren could remove a tumor in the neck of the patient surgically. Warren, who two years earlier rejected such methods actually after a hapless demonstration of Wells, was enthusiastic about the new possibilities and allegedly said: "Gentlemen, this is no humbug ." This event is considered the birth of the scientific anesthesia.

George Washington Carver, one of the first blacks who were studying in the United States, was known that he knew all sorts of animals and could determine. Once wanted his students to allow a fun with it and crafted from various insect parts a "new kind " together, and then ask him about what kind of insect it might be there. After consideration of the preparation he should have asked, " Did it hum? " ( " It growled "). When the students affirmed this, his answer was that this was a " humbug" (from English to hum " buzzing" and bug " Beetle ").

Anatoly Liberman noted in his review of the etymology of the word, that " humbug" would probably fall in the English out of use, if it had not been the favorite word Ebenezer Scrooge ( the main character of A Christmas Carol ), realizing his dislike of Christmas expresses.