Someone said, "
PLEASE
emphasize the importance of fact-checking ― more than a few times I've
seen them report on a story that later turned out to be codswallop." Since it was a Facebook comment, someone else quickly decided, "
I will be using codswallop for all of 2017 ― thank you." So what's that funny word mean? It means "nonsense," as this
image from Funky English tells us. With all the fake-news making the rounds, there's a lot of codswallop out there to deal with!
For an imaginative story about the word's possible origins, read
this article on the Lexicolatry blog about words and dictionaries. It may have all begun in the 1870s with a guy named Hiram Codd and a glass marble in the neck of a bottle of fizzy stuff. Or maybe the story's a load of codswallop!
Best of all, in googling the word, I found this quote from J. K. Rowling. Which Harry Potter book is this from?
I think the Irish say "malarkey" which is different than blarney and more like baloney.
ReplyDeleteI love it, Colleen! Facebook keeps encouraging me to add something to my Bio, but I put up a single sentence years ago, and it is enough: "I speak fluent Blarney." I'm part Irish, so you and I may be distant cousins. :)
ReplyDeleteI love this word and since my relatives all live in the UK I've probably heard it used more than most Americans :-)
ReplyDeleteSince I'm English-Irish-Scottish-French, you and I may be distant cousins as well, Helen. :)
ReplyDeleteHey, hey, hey! "Codswallop" has spread to Colleen's blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.looseleafnotes.com/2017/01/13-is-the-bird-feeder-half-empty-or-half-full/