Isn't Malarkey actually Irish for Bullshit....or what??

[Playinghardball]

[hedgehog]

1. I always understood it to be more in the sense of childish nonsense.

[H2O Man]

2. It carries far

more disrespect and utter contempt, when used properly. VP Biden used it properly.

[Speck Tater]

3. mal = bad; arkey = person from Arkansas

Therefore, malarkey = bad person from Arkansas.

I'm pretty sure that's what it means.

[murray hill farm]

10. Hey....

works for me! I live in Arkansas...sigh! Lots of those malarkey dudes here.

[valerief]

4. I like how he used "stuff" instead of "shit". nt

[pinto]

5. Synonyms from Merriam-Webster -

Synonyms:

applesauce [slang], balderdash, baloney (also boloney), beans, bilge, blah (also blah-blah), blarney, blather, blatherskite, blither, bosh, bull [slang], bunk, bunkum (or buncombe), claptrap, codswallop [British], crapola [slang], crock, drivel, drool, fiddle, fiddle-faddle, fiddlesticks, flannel [British], flapdoodle, folderol (also falderal), folly, foolishness, fudge, garbage, guff, hogwash, hokeypokey, hokum, hoodoo, hooey, horsefeathers [slang], humbug, humbuggery, jazz, nonsense (also malarky), moonshine, muck, nerts [slang], nuts, piffle, poppycock, punk, rot, rubbish, senselessness, silliness, slush, stupidity, taradiddle (or tarradiddle), tommyrot, tosh, trash, trumpery, twaddle.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malarkey

[HereSince1628]

6. I think it's actually an Americanism... n/t

[gollygee]

7. I looked up the entymology and it was unknown

but believed to have come from someone's surname. Probably someone who lied as much as Ryan does. So we could say "Ryan" as easily as "Malarkey" I guess.

And yes as to PP - American, first seen in 1924.

[Auntie Bush]

12. Romney/Malarkey sounds good to me.

We should start calling him Malarkey when referring to Ryan. Everyone would know who we are talking about. I love the definitions of Malarkey...they all fit him to a tee!

[fleur-de-lisa]

8. It generally means . . .

"meaningless, or deliberately misleading talk; nonsense"

[DevonRex]

11. Possibly from lark in the sense of 'having a lark'

joking around, friends partying etc.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. OED says "originally US, origin unknown" with the earliest citation from 1929.