Scene from HBO’s Band of Brothers, set in 1943, in which Private Donald Malarkey, played by actor Scott Grimes, undergoes weapons inspection by his company commander, played by David Schwimmer
24 December 2020
Malarkey is a slang term for nonsense, humbug, or bullshit, and it is a favorite of President-Elect Joe Biden, who uses it with regularity. The origin is unknown, but there are several conjectures. The word is primarily an Americanism, but one of the possible origins roots it in northern English dialect.
Malarkey or Mullarkey is also an Irish surname, as the video clip from HBO’s television series Band of Brothers demonstrates—one of the soldiers in E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II was Sergeant Donald Malarkey (1921–2017). But how that surname might be connected to the slang meaning has never been explained. There is no person of that name who is particularly associated with nonsense or foolishness.
The Oxford English Dictionary also lists the suggestion that it comes from the Greek μαλακός (malakos), meaning soft. This seems a stretch, to the point of absurdity, in my eyes.
More plausibly, Green’s Dictionary of Slang raises the possibility that it is from the northern English dialect marlock, which, with various spellings, is well attested in nineteenth century. It is no stretch of the imagination to think that English immigrants brought it to the United States, with the diminutive -ey suffix being attached to it along the way. Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary gives several definitions for marlock, several of which align with the American slang meaning:
A prank, frolic, “lark”; a trick, practical joke; a noisy disturbance, an uproar, “row.”
A fraudulent contrivance or trick.
One who plays pranks, a fool.
1922 cartoon by T.A. Dorgan featuring a man and a woman watching two men trying to talk on adjacent telephones
The American slang sense is recorded in the early 1920s. The earliest uses I’m aware of are by two noted and widely circulated newspapermen, cartoonist Theodore Aloysius (Tad) Dorgan and Independent New Service sportswriter Davis J. Walsh.
Dorgan uses Milarkey in a 9 March 1922 cartoon to designate a telephone exchange. Milarkey would stand for the letters MI, which on a telephone dial would indicate the numbers 6 and 4:
Listening to two blokes battle as they try to phone in a joint without a booth [...] Aw, go chase yourself!!! No– No– Not you Central—I’m talking to a fish faced dodo here opposite me—no on my word Central—yes Milarkey 609 J. What? Say...
1924 cartoon by T.A. Dorgan featuring lawyers arguing in a courtroom while four policemen converse in the gallery
This particular use is not, in and of itself, relevant to the slang usage, except that two years later, on 2 April 1924, Dorgan uses malachy in another cartoon, this time clearly in the sense of nonsense or humbug. In the cartoon, a group of policemen are discussing two lawyers:
I don’t trust ‘em either—they might be framin’ up the poor prison at that
Malachy—you said it—I wouldn’t trust a lawyer no further than I could throw a case of scotch
In light of his later use, it seems clear that Dorgan chose Milarkey for the fictitious telephone exchange because it was associated with nonsense. Dorgan’s various spellings hint that he hadn’t seen the word in print; he had only heard it spoken.
And in between the publication of Dorgan’s two cartoons, syndicated sportswriter Davis Walsh used malarkey in a column about Argentinean boxer Luis Firpo. From an 8 September 1923 column:
Indeed the challenger has been so unimpressive in public that a coterie of volunteer pallbearers has made a practice of attending all workouts at the dog track and laughing immoderately at every move the Latin makes They seem to think he is a lot of “malarkey,” as it were
The periods are missing in the original.
Walsh would use malarkey a number of times in the first half of the 1920s. From a 17 February 1924 column:
Some attempt has been made to account for the defeat of the United States hockey team by the Canadians in the Olympic games by declaring the result was the fruit of team work rather than individual brilliancy. This is as so much malarkey, according to the best informed sources.
From 12 March 1924:
From a potpourrie [sic] of affirmations and denials in circulation today on matters of heavyweight business it was declared on the plumb-bob level to be fact and not fancy that there would be only two heavyweight championship bouts to be held this summer, to wit: Jack Dempsey versus Tom Gibbons in New York during the early part of June; Jack Dempsey versus Luis Firpo in Jersey City early in September.
The rest of the chatter is so much malarkey, according to a tip so straight that it can be passed thru a peashooter without touching the sides.
From 19 April 1924:
That the business is not so much malarkey is indicated by the fact that English and American sections of an international intercollegiate committee, already appointed, include the names of some of the most prominent men in the tennis world.
And from 6 December 1924:
However, all talk of Eddie Roush figuring in any deal with the Giants is so much malarkey, according to Hendricks.
Both Dorgan and the less-well-known Walsh were syndicated writers and their work appeared in newspapers across the United States. While it’s highly unlikely that either coined the word malarkey, they undoubtedly played a significant role in popularizing and spreading the slang term.
Sources:
Dorgan, T.A. “Indoor Sports” (cartoon). San Francisco Call and Post, 9 March 1922, 23. California Digital Newspaper Collection.
———. “Indoor Sports” (cartoon). Madison Capital Times (Wisconsin), 2 April 1924, 11. NewspaperArchive.com.
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 2020, s.v. malarkey, n.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2008, s.v. malarkey, n.
Walsh, Davis J. “College Tennis League Formed.” Marion Daily Star (Ohio), 19 April 1924, 6. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
———. “Cubs Won’t Part with O’Farrell.” Minneapolis Daily Star, 6 December 1924, 12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
———. “Firpo Is Real Actor Even if Does Nothing Else in Proper Way.” Defiance Crescent-News (Ohio), 8 September 1923, 8. NewspaperArchive.com.
——— [“Walsh, David” recte Davis]. “The Sport Crucible.” Tampa Sunday Tribune (Florida), 17 February 1924, 10-D. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
———. “Sport News.” Indiana Evening Gazette (Pennsylvania), 12 March 1924, 13. NewspaperArchive.com.
Wright, Joseph. The English Dialect Dictionary, vol. 4 of 6. Oxford: Henry Frowde, 1905, s.v. marlock, sb. and v.
Video credit: Ambrose, Stephen E. and Erik Jendreson (writers), Phil Alden Robinson (director). “Currahee.” Band of Brothers, HBO, airdate: 9 September 2001.