Joe Biden is nearly 70 years old, but he's better known for gaffes and f-bombs than old-fashioned slang more suited to an Ohio nursing home.
But in an effort to keep his language relatively tame during Thursday night's vice presidential debate, Biden twice dropped the word "malarkey."
Referring to opponent Paul Ryan's assertions, Biden said, "This is a bunch of stuff," in a thinly-veiled attempt to avoid the more Biden-esque term "bullsh*t.
When moderator Martha Raddatz pressed him on what he meant by "stuff," he paused, searching for a better term, and out popped "malarkey."
First appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1924, malarkey means nonsense or foolishness. Some Democrats might say it's another term for "lies."
The word has its roots in Ireland, and may be derived from the Irish name Mullarkey. Perhaps a long-ago Mullarkey was known for their nonsense and the name stuck.
It may also be related to the Irish word mullachan, which means a "ruffian" or a "strong boy." Who better to spread nonsense?
After Biden used the word, it became a popular hashtag on Twitter, spurred on by Democratic strategists who used it in debate commentary.
"Ryan kicking himself for not responding to Biden's "malarkey" with hogwash, fiddle faddle, blatherskyte, flapdoodle #23skidoo #catspajamas," tweeted John Podhoretz of Commentary Magazine.
Lizz Winstead, co-creator of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," tweeted, "If you wonder why this race is so close, look no further than how many people had to look up the word Malarkey."
Fortunately, the Oxford English Dictionary stepped into the online fray to clear things up, tweeting, "The OED records evidence of 'malarkey', meaning 'nonsense' from 1924. It is originally an American slang word, origin unknown."
Will "malarkey" experience a new resurgence after this debate? It's already getting attention that has nothing to do with politics, like ad placement with burger chains: "If you don't think Whataburger is delicious, well that's just a bunch of malarkey."
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