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The American Heritage Dictionary traces the passage of the words bunk (noun), debunk (verb) and debunker (noun) into American English in 1923 as a belated outgrowth of "bunkum", of which the first recorded use was in 1828, apparently related to a poorly received "speech for Buncombe County, North Carolina" given by North Carolina representative Felix Walker during the 16th United States Congress (1819–1821).
He is also a member of the editorial board of Cryptologia, the scholarly journal of codes and codebreaking, and of the "Usage Panel" of the American Heritage Dictionary.
The American Heritage Dictionarys etymology is similar, citing the Middle English genet, from Old French; from the Catalan ginet, of Arabic and, ultimately, of Berber origin.