HUMBUG

Where it comes from

Origin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) An obvious lie”), or from hum (“(dialectal and slang) to cajole; delude; impose on”) + bug (“a goblin, a spectre”). In his Slang Dictionary (1864), English bibliophile and publisher John Camden Hotten (1832–1873) suggested a link to the name of the German city of Hamburg, “from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the war in the last century”, or alternatively a derivation from ambage. Hotten also said he had traced the earliest occurrence of the word to the title page of Ferdinando Killigrew’s book The Universal Jester (see quotations), which he dated to about 1735–1740. This dating has therefore been adopted by other dictionaries. However, the OED dates the word to about 1750, as the earliest edition of Killigrew’s work has been dated to 1754.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

HUMBUG in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 21 boards so far. 59 players have found it across Outlier's history.

It first turned up on Day 27, 16 June 2026. The most recent board was Day 105, 2 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 4 days.

Built from these letters

HUMBUG starts with H and ends with G. Sorted, its letters read BGHMUU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. U appears more than once.

Words that start HUMBUG

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Also seen on Day 27