Show The Name N ame ameIs Is Familiar F o BY FELIX B. B and ELMO SCOTT SCOW WATSON Its the Bunk u ITS IT'S TS T'S just a lot of bunk is a n phrase that owes Its existence to a debate that occurred in the house of representatives in 1820 This is not to imply that congress was free tree from bunk bunk before that by any means but the words bunk bunkum and buncombe originated during a debate over the famous Missouri Compromise Felix Walker a North Carolina mountaineer represented the West West- Western Western Western ern North Carolina district which in in- included in- in included included his own Buncombe county While everyone else was demanding a vote Walker wanted to make m ke a speech His political friends tried Yancey BUNCOMBE Haywood Asheville Rutherford Henderson Polk to stop him but he insisted on mak mak- making makIng making ing a long pointless harangue de de- declaring declarIng declaring claring his constituents would be disappointed if It he didn't say some some- something something something thing for dear old Buncombe The word came to mean humbug or in in- insincere insincere Insincere sincere talk And Buncombe county was named mimed for Edward Buncombe a wounded colonel of the Continental army who died In Philadelphia in 1780 Thus the man whose name Is used to des des- designate desIgnate ignate claptrap had nothing to do with it and had been dead 40 years when the word came to have its present meaning Nicotine is a common word but NICOTINE N Jean Nicot French diplomat of ot the after atter whom it was named is little remembered He studied in Paris was a court court- courtier courtIer courtier ier to Henry II and envoy of Francis II to Lisbon in 1560 While in Spain he obtained the seeds of the tobacco plant from a Dutchman who brought them from Florida Nicot returned Mo J toP Paris a r I s with wit h j these seeds and s i became responsible Q ble for the intro Intro- introduction introduction of tobacco tob c- c cco co to France k J But the word I nicotine comes com c o m e s a from the scientific ti ic ie word for the thC y i i species of the 45 Y 1 f plants and shrubs from which nico nico- nicotine nicotine 1 tine is derived They are arc called called Jean Nicot plants and that is the word coined directly from Jean Nicot's Nicols name Not all of the plants and shrubs are arc used for smoking some smoking some of them arc are beautiful annuals and perennials with attractive flowers AU varieties bear nicotine which is used to kill insects and only the genus is used by smokers to kill time Why the plant was named for tor Jean Nicot who brought it to France instead of the Dutch Dutch- Dutchman Dutchman Dutchman man who brought it to Nicot can best be explained by the fact that Nicot wrote a French dictionary at the II time and merely gave himself a break I Marcel Wave WaveA WaveA A A marcel seems to be bethe L A the perfect for the name wave in a womans woman's hair it was chosen only because it was the name of the theman theman theman man who invented the first success success- successful successful successful ful one But Bul his name was Francois Marcel Grateau so some thought must have been given to the way the word would sound or his middle name would not have been chosen Francois was born in 1852 near Paris Paris' and his fa fa- father fathey r ther they was a stone mason His Ills moths moth mothers mother's ers er's lovely nat natural nn t. t r ural oral wavy moth I hair was the admira admiration 4 i ti tion lion of all her ac ac- acquaintances acquaintances 21 and the inspiration for her son to put all his effort toward inventing an iron that tha t would Imi Imitate imitate tate it ft Marcel Grateau In 1880 1886 he succeeded and women flocked from all over Europe and England for or his marcel wave Only 10 years later he retired from active hairdressing the acknowledged bent bens of his profession He lie lived for 39 years more how how- however however however ever and died at his home Chateau Thiel near Paris in 1930 at the age of o 84 Yet when he took up an apprenticeship in his fathers father's trade of stone masonry he was made to give it up because they said he wasn't healthy There is another and even greater paradox in lite He was also discharged from his Job in a beauty shop as a young man because the proprietor said he was not suited to that tha t type of work world Released by Western Newspaper Union |