Malachy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A masculine first name of Irish or Hebrew origin, borne by several saints and historical figures
2. A male personal name of Hebrew origin, traditionally popular in Ireland and linked to a twelfth-century saint
3. An Irish or Hebrew masculine given name, meaning messenger in its original Hebrew form

Etymology: Malachy is a male given name, and its etymology is tangled up with a much more famous word. The name itself is an Irish saint's name, but the source material here concerns "malarkey," which an older spelling, "malachy," once shared. That spelling is now obsolete, so the name and the nonsense word are usually treated as separate matters. The word "malarkey" meaning empty talk or nonsense was popularized by the Irish-American cartoonist Thomas Aloysius "Tad" Dorgan, who began using it in his cartoons on March 9, 1922. Its origin is unknown. One suggestion links it to the Irish "mallachtóireacht," meaning cursing, and another to the Greek "malakíes," meaning weaknesses or cowardice, but neither is firmly established. The name Malachy, by contrast, is a separate word. Its use as a given name in Ireland is tied to the saint of that name, and the spelling "malachy" in the nonsense sense is simply an older variant of "malarkey."