海角大神

Flimflam, fiddle-faddle, balderdash, bosh. English has so many creative ways to proclaim that something is 鈥渘onsense.鈥� Last week we scratched the surface, talking about malarkey and other words that contain a 鈥渒鈥� sound. This week we鈥檒l look at two other features that often distinguish these words, which give them a humorous cast and lessen the sting of their critique.聽

Many words for nonsense have a dactylic stress pattern: one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. According to one online compendium of literary devices, this DUM-da-da rhythm 鈥渃reates such a sing-song pattern that it does not often sound appropriate for serious subject matter,鈥� but is perfect for nonsense words. Balderdash, poppycock, and folderol all have this lilting, waltzing cadence 鈥� ONE two three, ONE two three 鈥� which lightens their tone. Folderol in fact has musical origins. It was taken from the choruses of 18th- and 19th-century songs, which often contained meaningless but catchy syllables like 鈥渇ol de rol, de rol de ra, diddle, diddle / fol de rol, de rol de ra.鈥�

Double dactyls, like jiggery-pokery, are even better. That word had a moment recently in British news coverage on Brexit. One newspaper headline read 鈥淏oris Johnson will try no deal Brexit jiggery-pokery, warns Scottish MP.鈥�

Other words for nonsense were formed via reduplication, in which a syllable is repeated, sometimes exactly and sometimes with a slight change. Reduplication is a hallmark of children鈥檚 speech. They often double syllables, saying 鈥渨awa鈥� for 鈥渨ater,鈥� for example.

Bish-bosh, claptrap, flimflam, and fiddle-faddle all developed through this process. Bosh is the Anglicized version of 产辞艧, a Turkish word that means 鈥渆mpty.鈥� It became fashionable slang in England with the 1834 publication of 鈥淎yesha, The Maid of Kars,鈥� about a young English aristocrat who rescues a beautiful woman from a Turkish harem. It turns out that she is a young English aristocrat, too 鈥� what are the chances? (This novel may have also introduced the Turkish word kismet, destiny, into English.) To me, 鈥渂osh!鈥� is onomatopoeia, the hissing 鈥渟hh鈥� resembling a sigh of frustration or irritation, and the reduplicated 鈥渂ish-bosh鈥� is even more evocative.

Claptraps were originally tricks that playwrights or actors would use to induce an audience to applaud 鈥� literal 鈥渢raps for claps鈥濃�� but by the 19th century the word meant 鈥渞ubbish, nonsense.鈥� 聽

There is one word for nonsense that has everything: lots of 鈥渒鈥� sounds, reduplication, and (most of) a double dactyl: ackamarackus. This was 1920s slang, like malarkey. Since we鈥檙e gearing up for the 2020 election, it might be time for a revival. We鈥檙e sure to hear a lot more of 鈥渢he old ackamarackus鈥� this year.