Words and Their Stories: Baloney

Baloney is a kind of sausage that many Americans eat often. The word also has another
meaning in English. It is used to describe something – usually something someone says – that
is false or wrong or foolish.

Baloney sausage comes from the name of the Italian city, Bologna. The city is famous for its
sausage, a mixture of smoked, spiced meat from cows and pigs. But, boloney sausage does
not taste the same as beef or pork alone.

Some language experts think this different taste is responsible for the birth of the expression
baloney. Baloney is an idea or statement that is nothing like the truth, in the same way that
baloney sausage tastes nothing like the meat that is used to make it.

Baloney is a word often used by politicians to describe the ideas of their opponents.

The expression has been used for years. A former governor of New York state, Alfred Smith,
criticized some claims by President Franklin Roosevelt about the successes of the Roosevelt
administration. Smith said, “No matter how thin you slice it, it is still baloney.”

A similar word has almost the same meaning as baloney. It even sounds almost the same. The
word is blarney. It began in Ireland about sixteen hundred.

The lord of Blarney castle, near Cork, agreed to surrender the castle to British troops. But he
kept making excuses for postponing the surrender. And, he made them sound like very good
excuses, “this is just more of the same blarney.”

The Irish castle now is famous for its Blarney stone. Kissing the stone is thought to give a
person special powers of speech. One who has kissed the Blarney stone, so the story goes, can
speak words of praise so smoothly and sweetly that you believe them, even when you know
they are false.

A former Roman Catholic bishop of New York City, Fulton Sheen, once explained, “Baloney
is praise so thick it cannot be true. And blarney is praise so thin we like it.”

Another expression is pulling the wool over someone’s eyes. It means to make someone
believe something that is not true. The expression goes back to the days when men wore false
hair, or wigs, similar to those worn by judges today in British courts.

The word wool was a popular joking word for hair. If you pulled a man’s wig over his eyes,
he could not see what was happening. Today, when you pull the wool over someone’s eyes,
he cannot see the truth.

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caliwhiteboy714: cali van dang o OC. dang di truong hong bang. weee
caliwhiteboy714: if someone pulls a piece of fabric, or material, over your eyes, what
happens?
Another expression is pulling the wool over someone’s
TieuThoBuiDoi:
eyes. It means to make someone believe something that is not
true.
caliwhiteboy714: you can't see clearly.
caliwhiteboy714: It means doing something to fool you. to trick you.
beodatmaytroi: Another expression is pulling the wool over someone’s eyes( lay
vai man ma che mat thanh)
caliwhiteboy714: If co ttbd comes in with another nickname.. so she can listen to her
students. and then asking questions to her students
huong1991: lua ai do
caliwhiteboy714: she is tricking them
caliwhiteboy714: she is pulling the wool over their eyes
caliwhiteboy714: she is fooling them
caliwhiteboy714: cali biet roi
caliwhiteboy714: cali la nguoi my
caliwhiteboy714: cali is going to Vietnamese school. lop 1
caliwhiteboy714: truong hong bang.
caliwhiteboy714: it's a school
caliwhiteboy714: in OC
caliwhiteboy714: www truong hong bang com
beodatmaytroi: hong bang`
caliwhiteboy714: cali khong biet ten cua truong co dau gi
caliwhiteboy714: dung roi
caliwhiteboy714: dau sach, dau huyen
zimma: ho^`ng ba`nf
caliwhiteboy714: cam on nhieu
caliwhiteboy714: tru?o`?ng Vie.^t Ngu?~ Ho`^ng Ba`ng
vscedar: Ngu~
caliwhiteboy714: that's the website
caliwhiteboy714: say again?
caliwhiteboy714: giong nga ?
caliwhiteboy714: oh
caliwhiteboy714: dau nga
caliwhiteboy714: la `
caliwhiteboy714: er
zimma: da^'u nga~
vscedar: tru*o*`ng Viê.t ngu*~ Hô`ng Bàng
caliwhiteboy714: co dau nga, dau sach, dau huyen
ta-den-day: dau^' sac('
caliwhiteboy714: oh. sac khong co 'h' ha?
ta-den-day: not dau sach
ta-den-day: yep
caliwhiteboy714: cali moi di hoc do, chua biet nhieu
vscedar: cedar
caliwhiteboy714: cali viet binh thuong htoi, nhung khi cali noi len mic, cali nghe rat giong
nguoi my, trang wa
caliwhiteboy714: vs cedar doc la victoria cederet?
TieuThoBuiDoi: cali would u like to come up & shade the ed sound?
caliwhiteboy714: you want me to discuss about the 'ed' ending?
caliwhiteboy714: cali duoc
caliwhiteboy714: er... let me try.
caliwhiteboy714: if I can remember my skype
caliwhiteboy714: the ID is...
caliwhiteboy714: but not sure the password
caliwhiteboy714: skype cua cedar la gi?
vscedar: vs.cedar
beodatmaytroi: yes
beodatmaytroi: very clearly

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I think you are great9206: men chao` co giao' Doi` Bui . Tieu Tho*.
vscedar: beodatmaytroi vui long doi. mot chut nhe
vscedar: doi. nghe thay caliwhiteboy giup ve phan phat am "ed"
beodatmaytroi: ok
vscedar: cedar nghi~ rat tot cho tat ca chung ta

vscedar:
vscedar: thank you
caliwhiteboy714: past tense..
caliwhiteboy714: who can give me some past tense words ending in -ed?
Wait_N_See: wanted
vscedar: worked
I think you are great9206: needed
TieuThoBuiDoi: delivered
caliwhiteboy714: nhieu qua
I think you are great9206: studied
caliwhiteboy714: want-ed, work-ed, need-ed, deliver-ed, fish-ed
caliwhiteboy714: T, or D
caliwhiteboy714: da banh?
caliwhiteboy714: if you have a kids game, with 10 little kids, and one adult..
caliwhiteboy714: loved
huong1991: chet roi
huong1991: em lai bi rot tay
caliwhiteboy714: v, m, n, l
caliwhiteboy714: hummed
caliwhiteboy714: cane
caliwhiteboy714: fill
caliwhiteboy714: m, l, v, n
caliwhiteboy714: therefore..
caliwhiteboy714: you need a small sound of -ed
caliwhiteboy714: D is a small sound
caliwhiteboy714: loveT
caliwhiteboy714: hummt
caliwhiteboy714: fillet
caliwhiteboy714: a word witha voiced ending...
caliwhiteboy714: must have a voiced -ed
caliwhiteboy714: loved
caliwhiteboy714: wish
caliwhiteboy714: laugh
huong1991: change
caliwhiteboy714: like
caliwhiteboy714: if you have 10 adults and one little child playing
caliwhiteboy714: laugh -d
caliwhiteboy714: laugh -t
caliwhiteboy714: wish -d
caliwhiteboy714: so a word that ends with a voiceless (c, f, k, p, q, s, t)
caliwhiteboy714: pack, laugh, pop, miss
TieuThoBuiDoi: chop?
caliwhiteboy714: always spelled -ed
caliwhiteboy714: but after c, f, k, p, s we prounce as T
caliwhiteboy714: WE DONt TYPe WITh SOME SMaLL LETTERs only
TheNguyen0806: not understand
caliwhiteboy714: laugh
caliwhiteboy714: laugh la lafff f is air..
Wait_N_See: f
caliwhiteboy714: if ends with FFF (air)
caliwhiteboy714: or P (air)
vscedar: rung
caliwhiteboy714: if ends with a voiced sound (voiced from vibration in the throat)
huong1991: rung
caliwhiteboy714: voiced = l, m, n,

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huong1991: de luoi cua ban ........
caliwhiteboy714: put fingers on the throat, when you say
caliwhiteboy714: mmm, nnn, lll, rrr, you FEEL it vibrate
huong1991: de ngon tay cua ban tren co, khi ban noi
caliwhiteboy714: vocal chord (larynx)
caliwhiteboy714: voice box
caliwhiteboy714: so we call these sounds 'voiced sounds'
caliwhiteboy714: if the word ends with this vibrating sound, we say -ed as D
caliwhiteboy714: D is also voiced
caliwhiteboy714: loved
caliwhiteboy714: lived
caliwhiteboy714: mash T or D?
caliwhiteboy714: if the word ends wtih D or T...
TieuThoBuiDoi: united?
caliwhiteboy714: we would not be able to hear the -T or -D
caliwhiteboy714: unite, need, bait, seed
TieuThoBuiDoi: wanted
TieuThoBuiDoi: ed
caliwhiteboy714: retreat

oklahoma blue: howdy tieu

caliwhiteboy714: retreat ends with T (voiceless) so use -ed (t)... would not work

TieuThoBuiDoi: hi OB
caliwhiteboy714: kick
caliwhiteboy714: kicked
oklahoma blue: khoe chu Tieu
Wait_N_See: t
caliwhiteboy714: k from kick is voiceless (it is made from air)
TheNguyen0806: e nghe nhu vit nghe sam
caliwhiteboy714: so it must be followed by the T sound (also voiceless)
[10:16:18 PM] duc: 9 âm vô thanh " Hồi Xưa CHị Tôi Thích Pha Cà Phê Sữa " H, X
,C,T,TH,K,F, S ,Ch

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