• codswallop •
Printable Version Pronunciation: kahds-wah-lêp • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Bull, bunkum, fiddle-faddle, flapdoodle, hogwash, horse feathers, hooey, hokum, malarkey, poppycock, tommy-rot, whang-doodle, or common, everyday windbaggery.
Notes: This word, which reeks of the days of Uriah Heap, Mr. Micawber, and the artful dodger, is in fact so recent a coinage (see Word history) that it has had no time to build a family. It is so English, however, we can easily project a codswalloper who engages in codswallopery, not to mention a naked verb: "You know Bertram is codwalloping if his lips are moving."
In Play: It is an unfortunate fact of modern life that we have a need for a steady stream of words meaning "nonsense" or something similar: "All that talk about his work in the government being top secret is codswallop—unless the government keeps it secret to avoid embarrassment." Of course, governments usually provide the finest in codswallop: "For the best in codswallop, flapdoodle, and gobbledygook, we can now turn to Congress's own TV network, C-SPAN."
Word History: One story would have Hiram Codd patenting a bottle for fizzy drinks with a neck containing a marble that kept the bottle shut until it was pressed inwards. That would have been back in the 19th century. Wallop was a slang term for beer, so Codd's wallop could have been used by beer drinkers as a derogatory term for bad beer or soft drinks. The problem is that codswallop seems to have first appeared in print only in the early 1960s. Moreover, while the word has been spelled cod's wallop, there is no published evidence of any spelling Codd's wallop. Conclusion? Nobody knows, not even the eloquent and articulate M. Henri Day, who recognized a wallopingly funny word when he saw it, and generously shared it with us.
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
