Fun and Important Words - Malarkey

Malarkey is a colorful and punchy term for nonsense or foolishness.  It can also be used to describe insincere or exaggerated talk. It is a word that carries a specific weight when you use it to dismiss claims or excuses as hogwash.  While it has become a staple of American political discourse, it remains an informal, playful and expressive way to call out empty rhetoric. [1] [2] The origin of the word is famously murky, which is fitting for a term that means nonsense.  Evidence points to its emergence in North America during the early 1920s.  The first known use is often attributed to the Irish-American cartoonist Thomas Aloysius (Tad) Dorgan, who began using the term in his cartoons in Mid-1920s.  By the end of that decade, the word had begun to appear more widely in print. [3] Despite various theories, the etymology remains officially unknown.  Some linguists and researchers have suggested potential links to the Greek word malakia, which can mean softness or, in a figurative sense, effeminacy or weakness.  Others have pointed to the Irish surname Mullarkey (and its various spellings), though there is no verified connection between any individual of that name and the word’s development.  There is even a niche theory suggesting it might be related to the London expression Madame Misharty, a personification of wild sales talk.  Still another possibility is some use of the Gaelic root word "meall-", which means being deceptive or lying. [3] Because the word began as slang in the United States, it is not traditionally found in older printed dictionaries from the 19th century.  However, it is now widely recognized in major modern dictionaries as a standard, though informal, English noun. [3] According to Google ngram, common use of malarkey appears in the 1920s and then took off in the 1930s.

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