Blogtrek

Terms for Nonsense

I just encountered a really unusual word for nonsense today: codswallop. Terms for nonsense are numerous: codswallop, malarkey, baloney, poppycock, bullhockey, Quatsch (in German), crap, rubbish, and so forth. The main characteristic of terms for nonsense is that they are nonsensically constructed. What is there about poppies, cocks, or roosters that makes them not make sense? What is so nonsensical about Bologna, Italy, or the sausage that it produces? It makes me feel that I can construct my own terms. How about gabugadoddle? Now if you say that is not a valid expression, I can tell you that is so much gabugadoddle. The same for kafeishna, gavumpbump, bodallden, and eingliswye. It appears that if you use it right, people get the message. That theory that you are talking about tonight is so much eingliswye. I think it should be this way. Which verifies what I have been saying about terms for nonsense: they don't make sense.