A '''debunkerDebunker''' is a pejorative description for an individual who discreditsattempts andto contradictsdiscredit claims, asobservations beingand falseideas.<ref> {{cite web|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NY9YAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mPcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2739,3104287&dq=debunker&hl=en|title=Debunker exaggerateddies|}}Spokane orDaily pretentious.Chronicle - Sep 14, 1964</ref><ref name=dict>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Debunker |title=Debunker |accessdate=2007-09-26 |work=Dictionary.com Unabridged }}"to expose or excoriate (a claim, assertion, sentiment, etc.) as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated: to debunk advertising slogans."</ref> Originally Thecoined termwithout isthe closelynegative associatedconnotation withby [[scientificWilliam skepticism|skepticalWoodward investigation]] of topics such as [[Unidentified flying object(novelist)|U.F.O.]]s,William claimed [[paranormalWoodward]] phenomena,in [[cryptid]]s,1923 [[conspiracynovel theories]], [[alternative medicine]], [[religion]], or [[pseudoscientific]] research''Bunk''.
==Etymology==
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|Buncombe]]" given by [[North Carolina]] representative [[Felix Walker (American politician)|Felix Walker]] during the [[16th United States Congress]] (1819–1821).<ref name="ahd">[http://www.bartleby.com/61/46/D0064600.html debunk - The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000], [[Houghton Mifflin]], [[Boston]], accessed 2009-01-11</ref>
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The term ''debunk'' [[neologism|originated]] in a 1923 novel ''Bunk'', by [[United States of America|American]] [[novelist]] [[William Woodward (novelist)|William Woodward]] (1874–1950), who used it to mean to "take the [[wikt:bunkum|bunk]] out of things."
Often the term "debunkeryDebunking" is not limited to arguments about scientific validity. It can also be used in a more general sense at attempts to discredit any opposing point of view, such as that of a political opponent.
