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• blarney •

Pronunciation: blahr-nee • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: 1. Persuasive cajolery, eloquent flattery, silver-tongued speech. 2. Nonsense, poppy-cock; foolish, misleading talk.

Notes: Today's word is a lexical orphan, albeit an unusual one. It is unusual for a noun to refer to an activity; activities are usually expressed by verbs. So, today's Good Word may itself be used as a verb, to blarney, which has all the forms of a verb: blarneys, blarneyed, blarneying. The verb opens the door for an agent noun, blarneyer "someone good at blarney".

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In Play: The semantic slide of today's good word from eloquence to nonsense aptly illustrates the English-speaking world's skepticism of eloquent speech. "Sean got his gift of blarney from the Good Words at the Alpha Dictionary site, though he is known to kiss the occasional rock." If your blarney is unconvincing, it becomes something quite different, mentioned in meaning No. 2 above: "That story of her love affair with a leprechaun is pure blarney."

Word History: The eponym of today's good word is the tiny village of Blarney, just outside the city of Cork, Ireland. The Blarney Stone is perched high up in the battlements of Blarney Castle there. Legend has it that anyone who kisses it will be blessed with the gift of eloquent speech. The stone was given to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn, seen in the motion picture Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson. Legend would have it be half the Stone of Scone over which Scottish Kings historically were crowned.

Excellent video, Doc.
thanks for providing that. I have been there, kissed it, and tried
to get my mother to climb to the top to do so as well, but she
insisted (being a McCarthy herself) that she had enough blarney
to go around without climbing all those steps necessary to kiss
the thing, which as you can see on the video, is in itself a major
task.
Beautiful place, glad I finally opened your video, and again thanks.

You're quite welcome. I thought the tourist people for Blarney did a remarkable job of capturing the beauty of the place.

They most certainly did.

My travel has been largely limited to business trips and hence I never got to Ireland even though it is to me, the auld sod. I do know blarney when I hear it. I wouldn't kiss the stone under any condition. I have two stones in my study and am looking at them now. They are strictly decorative. I have never kissed either of them.

I kissed it, but going to the top of that castle was bloody awful.
And then you sit down, grab hold of the bars to hold you as you
lean back and kiss the stone upside down and backwards is not
something I'd recommend. I'm half Irish but more and more
I'm agreeing with my mother, I've enough blarney and don't need
the stone for more. Glad I did it though.