WORD FOR THE DAY

Your word for today is: Bunbury, n.

Bunbury, n.

Pronunciation:/ˈbʌnbərɪ/

Etymology: <  Bunbury, the name of an imaginary character in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of being Earnest (1899).

An imaginary person used as a fictitious excuse for visiting a place or avoiding obligations (see quot. 18991). Hence used allusively in various formations (see quots.).

1899  O. Wilde Importance of being Earnest i. 14, I have Bunburyed all over Shropshire on two separate occasions.

1899  O. Wilde Importance of being Earnest i. 16, I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose.

1899  O. Wilde Importance of being Earnest i. 17 Now that I know you to be a confirmed Bunburyist I naturally want to talk to you about Bunburying.

1959 Listener 12 Feb. 300/3 He may even be able to kill the faint hope in many hearts that the former has merely gone Bunburying.

1960 Times 27 Apr. 10/1 The perils of Bunburying—to use the classical term for the creation of a spurious alibi—increase in proportion to the complexity of the story told.

1965  P. Moyes Johnny under Ground ix. 117 I've evolved this rather attractive alter ego—Mr. Reginald Derbyshire-Bentinck. Quite Bunburyish, in his own little way.

1969 Listener 5 June 794/3 For he who lives more lives than one More deaths than one must die... At least the words are an apt motto for a Bunburyist.