Malarkey means foolish talk, nonsense. Malarkey, sometimes spelled as malarky, is an American word. The exact etymology of the word malarkey is unknown. Many assume malarkey is an Irish-American word that is somehow related to the Irish surname, Mullarkey, but a direct link is yet to be established. In any case, the word malarkey appears in the United States in the 1920s and is made popular by the cartoonist T A Dorgan, an Irish-American. Interestingly, his original spelling of the word was milarkey, suggesting that malarkey was a word that was only used in conversation for some period of time before it was ever committed to print. The word malarkey is primarily used in the United States.
Examples
It’s only fair, given the malarkey the right has stirred up about President Barack Obama’s legitimacy — without facts — since the 2008 campaign. (The Post and Courier)
His gaffe was an awkward reminder that whatever malarkey you’ve heard about Voter ID, it’s just a Republican attempt to gain a political advantage. (The Morning Call)
It is somewhat ironic that the economist whose most famous quote leads this article was also (at least partially) responsible for much of the malarkey preceding the last major global boom that was driven (again, at least partially) by an over-reliance on mathematical models that helped market practitioners to believe that theirs was a science of sorts rather than informed guesswork masquerading as a science. (The Asia Times)
“That’s malarkey,” Fardon said. “That’s not the law. That’s not the facts. That’s not the evidence. That’s not the truth.” (The Chicago Sun-Times)
Sadly, he was mistaken as he soon discovered when he ploughed butt-first into a large piece of metal designed to deter joy riders from this exact malarkey. (The Australian Women’s Weekly)