Fashionable Words: Malarkey

[Sometimes words die out of fashion. But sometimes those words are good words, words with a certain appeal that can't be denied forever. Those words should be brought back into fashion, used frequently and used often. These are those words.]

Word:
Malarkey

Definition:   noun
1. insincere or foolish talk.

2. speech or writing meant to obscure, mislead, or impress.

Origin:
HA! You think all words have an origin. That's funny. Keep up that optimism in life. It'll get you far.

Really, etymologists have no clue. Like, really, no one has a clue where it came from. And linguistic people LOVE knowing where words came from, so that's saying something.

Word Detective is indecisive.

Dictionary.com simply says it's an Americanism that first came about between 1925-1930.

Merriam-Webster claims it was first used in 1929.

World Wide Words says it came about in 1922 in a cartoon. So, to hell with Merriam-Webster.

Etymologist Eric Partridge went on a limb back in the day saying, "Hey, you know, maybe--just maybe--'malarkey' comes from the Greek 'malakia'--you know?" Then his fellow etymologists laughed at him and gave him a wedgie.

Editor Paul Beale later suggested it came from the Britishism 'Madame Misharty,' which all etymologists gave a collective seven seconds of serious consideration.

Most agree it sounds Irish/Cockney, and is probably some guy's name. So whomever this Malarkey fella is we know two things:

a.) He was a guy who liked screwing around with people.
b.) He covered his tracks.

Most obscure Urbandictionary.com definition for malarkey:

5. Stupid, lazy, mean, and likes stuffed crust.

Used in a sentence:
1. College professors are supposed to see through the malarkey students offer explaining their absences.

2. Politicians are fluent in malarkey.

Word Awesomness Scale (1 to 5):
Four.

It has all the charm of the illicit Old World Europeans.