blarney
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 17, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n blarney • \\BLAR-nee\\ • noun
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Blarney refers to false but charming talk that often flatters the listener.
\n\n// The bartender laughingly asked her gregarious patron if anyone ever believed his blarney.
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\u201cSome tales are mundane, like the song about Molly Malone: \u2018In Dublin fair city, the girls are so pretty \u2026\u2019 Did such a woman ever exist? There\u2019s a record of a Mary Malone who lived (and died) in the 17th century. She was likely both a fishmonger and a lady of the night. \u2026 Some tales are blarney. Blarney Castle dates to 1446, and there\u2019s a slab of carboniferous limestone near the top. It\u2019s said to be the stone used by Jacob as a pillow when he dreamt of a ladder to heaven. Others say Cl\xedodhna, Queen of the Banshees, told Cormac Laidir MacCarthy to kiss the stone so he would be eloquent when defending his home in the court of Queen Elizabeth.\u201d \u2014 Kevin Fisher-Paulson, The San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Mar. 2023
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
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The village of Blarney in County Cork, Ireland, is home to Blarney Castle, and in the southern wall of that edifice lies the famous Blarney Stone. Legend has it that anyone who kisses the Blarney Stone will gain the gift of skillful flattery, but that gift must be attained at the price of some limber maneuvering\u2014you have to lie down and hang your head over a precipice to reach and kiss the stone. One story claims the word blarney gained popularity as a word for \u201cflattery\u201d after Queen Elizabeth I of England used it to describe the flowery (but apparently less than honest) cajolery of McCarthy Mor, who was then the lord of Blarney Castle.
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