Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 86. The word origin today is
cockamamie. All right. It's a very funny sounding word. Let's take a look at the
note here. If someone says a person or thing is cockamamie, it means someone or
something is ridiculous, silly, unreasonable, unbelievable, etc. So
anything kind of along that line. All right. Let's continue. The origin of cockamamie
derived from a French decorating term and I think in French it was a decalcomanie
Maybe. It started out as a term to describe a craze in the second half
of the 1800s which transferred ink images. Images means pictures better
known, today as decals. So it's pretty much what today we would call decals. This
term was Anglicized. Meaning you know, It was made into like an English version.
it was Anglicized in English as decalcomania. Okay. It became popular in
the 1920s and 1930s. So it took a while to get to the US. You know, centuries ago
it took longer. Many manufacturers of candy and gum gave out these ink
transfers free with purchases. They could be applied to the skin as a temporary
tattoo. Yeah. I kind of remember this a little bit around when I was a kid.
Sometimes you still had seen things like this. It was a temporary tattoo that could later
be washed off. So, so it's good for kids they liked it for a while, especially for
children. They say children from Brooklyn, New York butchered the pronunciation. So
if you butcher the pronunciation, it means you pronounce it very badly and the
incorrect bad pronunciation is what ended up catching on. So and butchered
the pronunciation and turned it into cockamamie. The way we pronounce it today.
Eventually the term came to refer to anything that was ridiculous or silly.
like this craze of temporary tattoos. Okay. The former mayor of New York , Ed
Koch ... he was mayor I think like in the late 1970s early 1980s. He had two or
three terms I think. Yeah used to use this word often in his vocabulary. So he
was one of the main , main mayors in the whole country and he was always on
talking about oh that's just cockamamie. Yeah.
That's nonsense that cockamamie idea . He used to say it all the time. So this term
is still very popular in the Northeast, especially around the New York area.
All right. Let's continue. All right. We got three examples to show you exactly how
it will be used. Example number one. What kind of cockamamie idea is that ? Like you
know what kind of crazy, ridiculous, foolish idea is that ? What are you
talking about. Or number two. He gave us some cockamamie excuse. I don't believe a
word he says. So it is like a ridiculous excuse. All right. And number
three here. He made up some cockamamie story that no one believes. Okay. Anyway,
that's just the way you would hear it used. Anyway, I hope you got it . I hope you
found it informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.