Debunkable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. able to be proven false through evidence or reasoning
2. susceptible to being revealed as untrue or misleading upon investigation
3. Capable of being shown to be incorrect or false through examination or proof

Etymology: "Debunk" is the word doing the real work here, and its history is the more surprising part. It was formed in American English in the early 1900s from "de-" meaning "remove" plus "bunk," itself short for "bunkum," a word for empty political talk. The "bunkum" comes from Buncombe County in North Carolina, whose congressman Felix Walker, in the 1820s, insisted on giving a speech for his constituents rather than for the House, earning the place name a lasting association with nonsense. "Debunkable" is simply "debunk" with the suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being," so it describes a claim or belief that can be shown to be false. The word inherits its sense of exposing pretension from the older "bunk," which by then had moved from grandstanding speech to plain humbug.