balderdash

stupid or nonsensical talk

TRANSLATION

balderdash = unsinniges Geschwätz, der Quatsch --- GOOGLE INDEX balderdash: approximately 1,200,000 Google hits

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

It's pure BALDERDASH for retailers to think that this will somehow hurt business or customers.

(Dallas Morning News)

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"Your reality, sir, is lies and BALDERDASH, and I’m delighted to say I have no grasp of it whatsoever."

(Monty Python member Terry Gilliam in the film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen)

Did you
know?

balderdash
noun

- something that is stupid or not true

(Cambridge Dictionary)

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One assumes, or at least wishes, that a wonderful-sounding word like balderdash has an interesting and funny origin. Unfortunately that’s not the case. As with some words in the English language, we simply don’t know where it came from. We are left with lots of speculation however.

Some say it is from the Welsh baldorddus, meaning idle noisy talk or chatter. Others have suggested that it is related to Dutch, Icelandic and Norwegian words like the Dutch balderen, to roar or thunder.

Balderdash apparently surfaced around the time of Shakespeare in the sense of a foamy liquid or an odd mixture of liquids like milk and beer or beer and wine. It wasn’t until the late 17th century that the meaning of nonsensical talk came about.

It has also been applied as verb in the sense of making a mixture of ingredients. Michael Quinlon, a well-known etymologist, cites this usage in a late 18th century work by Tobias Smollett (Travels Through France and Italy) in which he discusses French wine: "That which is made by the peasants, both red and white, is generally genuine. But the wine merchants of Nice brew and balderdash and even mix it with pigeons’ dung and quick-lime".

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SYNONYMS

bunk, bull, bullshit, drivel, malarkey, nonsense, poppycock, rigmarole, trash, tripe, twaddle

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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation

"Much of what we hear on TV talk shows these days is just balderdash!"

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