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sunshine jen: Malarkey
Last week, during the vice-presidential debates, Vice President Joe Biden used the word Malarkey. According to Politico, this is not the first time Biden has used the word.
With that one little word, Biden made me smile for the first time in this presidential race.
Malarkey is one of my favorite words. Other favorite words include tundra and permafrost (such a cool concept, permafrost). My Dad used malarkey when he was talking about someone talking out of their ass. Oh he’s full of malarkey Dad would say.
You could say, he’s full of bullshit, but it just doesn’t have that three syllable flow that malarkey has.
Malarkey is the kind of word that sounds like what it means. It sounds so nice even with the mal first syllable that suggests bad stuff (malpractice). By following with arkey, the word seems to say that the bad stuff is more foolish or stupid than really really bad. Don’t worry. It’s just arkey.
I consulted with my Irish word buddy on Malarkey because two things Joe Biden and my Dad have in common are a love of Amtrack and Irish American roots.
My Irish word buddy emailed me back the Irish word, Meallacach, which means alluring, charming, beguiling, deceitful. Yes, there is a word in Irish that means both charming and deceitful. He also pointed out that Glor meallacach means beguiling speech.
And that’s all the malarkey I have for malarkey. Next week, more gobbledygook.
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