the early days of "baloney"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nice work, B & G.

While it is true that Witwer applied the term "baloney" to third-rate
fighters as early as 1920, I think it would be a mistake to assume that the
word was ever used so exclusively, particularly when Baron von Munchausen
is called a "baloney" just two years later.  Nor am I aware that the word
ever meant "liar" specifically. I certainly never encountered it in that
sense, and it would be interesting if further exx. could be found.

"Baloney" was, rather, a vaguely dismissive term for clumsy, ignorant,
cloddish individuals.

I suggest that the new meaning 'hogwash' came about from the dismissiveness
of Witwer's sense (which he may or may not have invented and which appeared
in _Collier's_, one of the nation's leading mass-circulation weeklies) and
the familiarity of "blarney," a word that was very common in the journalism
of that era and which, even in the '50s, was used - in my experience,
anyway - more often in speech than it is today.

JL




On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 11:24 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: the early days of "baloney"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Great article, Ben. You found some wonderful early citations for boloney.
>
> The Language Log post and Ben's article referenced the fun 1926 saying
> about slicing "bolognie". The discovery of this citation was announced
> on this very list back in 2010. The citation was later added to
> Barry's fine webpage and the seminal reference work The Dictionary of
> Modern Proverbs.
>
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;JwjOSg;201008081944080400B
>
> Here is some additional text from the 1926 citation.
>
> [ref] 1926 May 9, The Sun, "No Matter How Thin You Slice It": Gab Of
> Collegiate Papas And Self And Self-Starting Flappers Is Always
> "Bolognie" Anyhow And In Sort Of Code by Katherine Scarborough, Page
> MS1, Baltimore, Maryland. (ProQuest)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> "No matter how thin you slice it." Which, as every flapper knows, is
> merely bologna (pronounced "bolognie") served in the grand manner.
>
> It is a subtle, trenchant and convincing expression which the young
> person with one earring uses to inform her collegiate papa that his
> best line is sound and fury, signifying nothing.
>
> For "bolognie" is to the slang of the moment what applesauce was to
> the vocabularies of yesteryear.
> [End excerpt
>
> My data file from 2010 has a cite that might help illustrate the
> semantic transition. In 1920 and 1921 baloney was used to label an
> oafish boxer as Ben notes. In the following example "big baloney" is
> used to label another type of person: a liar.
>
> [ref] 1922 October, The Mentor, Volume 23, Number 12, The Gopher Boys
> by M.S.H., Start Page 23, Quote Page 23, Edited and printed by inmates
> of the Massachusetts State Prison at Charlestown. (Google Books full
> view)[/ref]
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=FIRIAAAAYAAJ&q=baloney#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> They get me cuckoo, with their tales of junk; which ain't truth, but
> just colossal bunk! Old Munchausen copped the Liar's prize, but he was
> a big baloney, and I can open your eyes!
> [End excerpt]
>
> Regarding the introductory sentence of Ben's excellent column: The
> article at Inside Higher Ed stated that Professor Bass was supportive
> of the administration position and critical of some fellow faculty, I
> think. The term "bologna" (with the odd spelling) was used by Bass to
> label the stance or rationale of some faculty and not the
> administration.
>
> Garson
>
> On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 2:37 AM, Ben Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > Subject:      the early days of "baloney"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > My new Word Routes column is on how "baloney" came to mean "nonsense"
> > in the 1920s -- including some freshly discovered examples from
> > newspaper articles and comic strips:
> >
> > http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/how-baloney-got-phony/
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> > --
> > Ben Zimmer
> > http://benzimmer.com/
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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