A.Word.A.Day --baloney

A.Word.A.Day

Home

May 22, 2023

This week’s theme
Metaphors & idioms

This week’s words
baloney
daisy cutter
swan song
haircut
Piccadilly Circus

Cover: Tapas magazine

Illustration: Asier

Previous week’s theme
Words from ball games

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

If language worked only on a literal level, it would still be pretty useful, though quite insipid. Imagine early astronaut food eaten from toothpaste tubes. Sure, you get calories, but that’s it. Don’t expect color, flavor, or texture.

If baloney only meant a kind of sausage, it would still add value to the language, but it’s the metaphorical sense that adds seasoning.

Anything can serve as a metaphor. This week we’ll feature five terms that are used metaphorically or idiomatically.

What are your favorite figurative expressions in English or another language? Share below or email us at words@wordsmith.org.

PS: Yes, baloney, literally a sausage, can be a metaphor, but let’s not go bananas. With all due respect to Freud.

baloney or boloney

PRONUNCIATION:

(buh-LOH-nee)

MEANING:

noun: Nonsense, such as foolish, deceptive, or pretentious talk.

ETYMOLOGY:

From respelling of bologna (pronounced buh-LOH-nee), a kind of seasoned sausage, from the Italian city of Bologna (buh-LON-yuh; in Italian: bo-lo-nyah). Earliest documented use: 1928.

USAGE:

“Don’t give me baloney about being drafted. There is no draft.”
Daniel M. Jaffe; The Genealogy of Understanding; Lethe Press; 2014.

See more usage examples of baloney in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I like to say that arms are not for killing. They are for hugging. -Betty Williams, peace activist, Nobel laureate (22 May 1943-2020)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise