coincidental or not (?) "Too much Malarkey" 1904

Stephen Goranson goranson at DUKE.EDU
Sun Jan 8 15:38:43 UTC 2012


Previously we have seen various similar-sounding Irish words and names suggested for the origin of malarkey (nonsense etc.). It appears in baseball (? *) reporting in 1924:

1924    Indiana (Pa.) Evening Gaz. 12 Mar. 13/1   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.

Here's the 1904 opening text of a baseball report by (Irish-sounding?) O'Laughlin:

Too much Malarkey. That about summarizes the reasons for Minneapolis' defeat
at the hands of Columbus yesterday afternoon. Old "King Mull" fried and frapped the air
with shoots, drops and flips until the millers began to break ground every time they
approached the plate.

The Minneapolis journal., May 19, 1904, Image 15, p. 14(?), cpl. 3
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1904-05-19/ed-1/seq-15/;words=Malarkey+much?date1=1836&rows=20&searchType=advanced&proxdistance=5&date2=1922&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=+much+malarkey&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

*
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1004B&L=ADS-L&P=R7384&I=-3&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches

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