Malarkey!

/ Erin Servais

During last week’s vice presidential debate, Joe Biden dropped some old man slang on the world when he called fellow candidate Paul Ryan’s response malarkey.

In case you don’t know, here’s how Merriam-Webster defines malarkey: “insincere or foolish talk.”

Examples
“Your grandma smells like pickled beets!” Morris yelled.
“No, she doesn’t,” Walter interjected. “That’s malarkey.”

“Well, I think your grandma drinks blood,” Walter said snidely.
“No way. That’s malarkey!” Morris cried.

“What you just said was malarkey,” Walter responded.
“That’s malarkey that you think what I just said was malarkey.” Morris replied.

Etymology
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, we don’t know the origin of malarkey. But we do know that it entered American English in the mid-1920s. It’s also a surname, which makes me think some guy with the last name Malarkey was quite the storyteller in the mid-1920s.

Synonyms
As if malarkey weren’t good enough, there are other old-timey words that have the same meaning. Toss one of these nouns at the next fibber you come across:

balderdash

baloney

blarney

blather

bunk

bunkum

claptrap

codswallop

fiddle-faddle

fiddlesticks

flapdoodle

guff

hogwash

hooey

horsefeathers

poppycock

rubbish

tommyrot

twaddle

43 thoughts on “Malarkey!”

  1. Malarkey. Who knew where it came from? No one, as you point out. As one who is at or near the age of the VP, I do not see the word as archaic, jut quirky. Tnx for a fun post. Another word of aging interest — copacetic.

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