Name: English Tutor Nick P Word Origins (86) Cockamamie
Uploaded: 2019-11-11T02:53:09.000Z
Duration: 3 min 32 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 86. The word origin today is

Adverbs of degree

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.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

English Tutor Nick P Word Origins (86) Cockamamie

eventually

pronunciation

ridiculous

term