Today we talk about the use of a word that comes from a popular lunch meat, bologna.
This name, of course, comes from the town of Bologna, Italy, and bologna is similar to the
Italian lunch meat Mortadella. So how did baloney come to mean something untrue or nonsensical?
This name, of course, comes from the town of Bologna, Italy, and bologna is similar to the
Italian lunch meat Mortadella. So how did baloney come to mean something untrue or nonsensical?
Definition
Baloney |bəˈlōnē|noun informal
1 foolish or deceptive talk; nonsense : typical salesman’s baloney.
Origin
One of the earliest uses of "baloney" to mean nonsense was in the catch phrase "It's baloney no matter how thin you slice it," a popular American expression in the 1930's. It means that regardless of how many clever points or fine distinctions one makes, what one is saying is still false or is still nonsense.
1 foolish or deceptive talk; nonsense : typical salesman’s baloney.
Origin
One of the earliest uses of "baloney" to mean nonsense was in the catch phrase "It's baloney no matter how thin you slice it," a popular American expression in the 1930's. It means that regardless of how many clever points or fine distinctions one makes, what one is saying is still false or is still nonsense.
Variety slang writer Jack Conway, who also coined 'high-hat', 'pushover', 'payoff', 'bellylaugh', 'palooka and scram*', popularized the slang “nonsense” meaning for the word “balogna” or “baloney” in the early 1920s.
(* the only ones which are now in disuse.)
Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944), the New York governor who ran for president in 1928, frequently used the “baloney” slang term in 1928 and in the early 1930s. It is said that it was one of his favorite words.
2002, Dave Distel, The Sweater Letter, ISBN 0595259332, p. 267:
“Do you have the ability,” he asked another juror, “to discern between the truth and baloney?”
“I think so, definitely.”
“No matter how thin you slice it, it’s still baloney, right?”
“Do you have the ability,” he asked another juror, “to discern between the truth and baloney?”
“I think so, definitely.”
“No matter how thin you slice it, it’s still baloney, right?”
Phony Baloney
The word phony means
1 : not true, real, or genuine : intended to make someone think something that is not true
▪ He gave a phony name to the police. = The name he gave the police was phony. ▪ a phony [=(more commonly) counterfeit] $100 bill ▪ She's been talking in a phony [=fake] Irish accent all day.
▪ phony politicians
▪ He gave a phony name to the police. = The name he gave the police was phony. ▪ a phony [=(more commonly) counterfeit] $100 bill ▪ She's been talking in a phony [=fake] Irish accent all day.
2 of a person : not honest or sincere : saying things that are meant to deceive people
▪ phony politicians
— pho·ni·ness noun [noncount]
▪ I recognized the phoniness of her accent.
▪ I recognized the phoniness of her accent.
Perhaps because phoney rhymes with baloney and because of their proximity in meaning, the two words started to be used together, especially to refer to a person whose credibility is dubious:
Phoney baloney - A nickname for the late 1980s, early 1990s pop group Milli Vanilli whose singers actually didn't sing the songs they claimed to. The two males were likely selected for the group based on their appearance. They lip-synched all of their live performances. They were busted because people started to question why nobody had ever heard their singing voices in person. (Source: Urban Dictionary) |
Phonus Bolonus
This humorous variant could be described as 'mock Latin', as if phoney baloney were a scientific classification."And you cannot tell by the way a party looks or how he lives in this town, if he has any scratch, because many a party who is around in automobiles, and wearing good clothes, and chucking quite a swell is nothing but a phonus bolonus and does not have any real scratch whatever."
- Damon Runyon from The Snatching of Bookie Bob.
- Damon Runyon from The Snatching of Bookie Bob.
British equivalents:
tosh; tommyrot; humbug; drool; bosh; boloney; twaddle; taradiddle;
tosh; tommyrot; humbug; drool; bosh; boloney; twaddle; taradiddle;
How can you deal with the inedible baloney in your life?
THE BALONEY DETECTION KIT
And to close....There is even a SONG about baloney:
LYRICS: BALONEY POLONIOUS
To thine own self be true
Is only your point of view
Baloney, Polonius, for everyone but you
Brevity is the soul of wit
But stick with wit a little bit
And then you might discover something new
Neither a lender or borrower be
But in the end when you're in need
Baloney, Polonius, you know
More matter and less art, you say?
McLuhan blew that one away
Take your baloney, Polonius, and go
I'll come back as a master thinker
Commit philanthropy
Revive the maxims I destroyed
And go down in history
Erect a few statues, endow a few colleges
All named after me
Shakespeare said I'm bad
But I'm good
There's method in madness, yes
There I must agree
I'd like to see the whole world going mad
But the fact that you said it
Would tend to discredit
Polonius, due to your hokey baloney
Whatever truth the statement may have had
Is only your point of view
Baloney, Polonius, for everyone but you
Brevity is the soul of wit
But stick with wit a little bit
And then you might discover something new
Neither a lender or borrower be
But in the end when you're in need
Baloney, Polonius, you know
More matter and less art, you say?
McLuhan blew that one away
Take your baloney, Polonius, and go
I'll come back as a master thinker
Commit philanthropy
Revive the maxims I destroyed
And go down in history
Erect a few statues, endow a few colleges
All named after me
Shakespeare said I'm bad
But I'm good
There's method in madness, yes
There I must agree
I'd like to see the whole world going mad
But the fact that you said it
Would tend to discredit
Polonius, due to your hokey baloney
Whatever truth the statement may have had
"Baloney is the unvarnished lie laid on so thick you hate it..."- Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in a 1954 radio address.
