Today, it might be more appropriate to sing "Increase The Word Power Of The People".
(by Vera HC Chan-The Ticket)
What's with the malarkey?
Say what you will about the American electorate, when they hear a folksy word they don't understand, they'll look it up. Searches on Yahoo! for "marlarkey," "malarkey definition" and "what is malarkey" scored off the charts during and after the vice presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Paul Ryan.
"Marlarkey," as Merriam-Webster defines it, is "insincere or foolish talk." It's a dismissive word to use, with avuncular overtones, and you'd use it to deem something as silliness, bunkum, hogwash—verging on nonsense, you (and a thesaurus) might even say. The New York Daily News dug up a Grammarphobia 2007 entry, which traces the etymology of "malarkey" perhaps to the word for strong boy or ruffian ("mullachan"), a *Malarkey family name, or the Greek word for worthlessness ("malakia").
But it's been generally perceived as an Irish word, points out Sharyn O'Halloran, a political science professor at Columbia University. "I'm Irish," O'Halloran tells Yahoo News. "When you ask the Irish for directions, they say it's 'down the road apiece.'" That "apiece" could involve 12 right turns and a roundabout. With that loaded "malarkey" comes a warning, and served as Biden's coded message to an older generation about trusting Ryan.
"It's not an outright lie, but [Ryan's] telling you a tale. He's painting a picture for you, and it may not be accurate," O'Halloran explains. "That's why [Biden] did the overexaggerated laugh and the overexaggerated hands. ... What he's saying is: 'It's not true, it's not right, and the people who know, know that what [Ryan's] saying, it's not right. You cannot let him keep going on.'"
The message may have been aimed for seniors, but some younger folk (ages 13-54) were intrigued by the code. (Indeed, 7 percent of "malarkey" lookups hails from kids under 18.) Among the areas most curious about "malarkey"—Los Angeles led the top five regions in lookups on Yahoo! Search, followed by D.C., Houston, Boston and Philadelphia. Among the states, Californians were scratching their heads and tapping the keyboards the most, followed by residents of Wisconsin, North Carolina, Virginia and Massachusetts.
Truth be told, the whole episode confused me a little, too.
But not because I didn't know what Biden meant when he said "malarkey".
Because so many people seemed to not know what Biden meant when he said "malarkey".
Personally, I've known that word for years.
But, then, I read a lot, so go figure.
Even if I wasn't voracious (ladies and gentlemen, start your Google), I'm still a little skeptical about the "mystery".
This was a poltical debate, after all.
And given the context of what was being said, I'd think you'd have to be pretty obtuse (see "The Shawshank Redemption") not to be pretty crystal about the smoke signal Biden puffed out there.
I mean, seriously, saying you didn't know exactly what he meant, regardless of how he expressed it, is bullshit.
Ooops.
Sorry.
I meant malarkey.
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