the early days of "baloney"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 7:39 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> At 5/3/2013 06:28 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>Exx. like this are maddening because it's hard not to read later meanings
>>into them, even if they weren't intended.
>>
>>In this case, though, the story seems pointless if "boloney" is meant
>>  literally. What's more, in that case the liquor-seeker would have been
>>more likely to have muttered something about "a pound o' bologna," the
>>words used by the shopkeeper.
>>
>>If, on the other hand, "a lot of baloney" was already a familiar idiom, the
>>point would be its singular appropriateness in this case.
>>
>>"Nonsense" or "foolishness" in general may be a better interpretation here
>>than the narrower "hogwash," since it seems to refer to the entire
>>disappointing situation.
>
> If we're talking about:
>>>This Times' cross word puzzles has got me very much boloney and I'm
>>>even trying to pick 'em out of the linoleum squares on the kitchen floor.
>
> Then isn't it more "confusion" than "nonsense, foolishness"?

No, I was asking JL his opinion of the one from the Evening World, with the deli
mistaken for a speakeasy...

>>On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>
>> > JL, what do you think of the Jan. 23, 1922 cite from the Evening
>> > World? Would you say it antedates the 'hogwash' meaning and takes away
>> > the coinage credit from Jack Conway? Direct link:
>> >
>> > http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1922-01-23/ed-1/seq-17/

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