My grandfather used to say that someone was full of huey? or that was a lot of malarky? what did he mean?

Question

I never understood old people when they use words that are not in the dicitionary.
I am not even sure of the spelling of these words/slang .?malarky.huey or who-eee?
like why does a women get tight or a man gets stiff when they are drunk./?? is there a book to explain these slang expressions?

Answer 1

The expression is 'full of hooey' and it means 'full of malarkey' or 'full of baloney' or .. let's see ...

full of hot air
blowing smoke
full of nonsense

You get the general idea. The person that was 'full of hooey' just did not know what they were talking about.

As for the others, they have sexist origins .. a tongue-in-cheek reference to derogatory labels all too common in the 19th and 20th centuries..

There are books,
http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-American-Slang-Robert-Chapman/dp/006270107X
http://www.worldwidewords.org/reviews/green.htm
and websites:
http://www.rugglesrag.com/lookout/OLD-LOOKOUT-DO-NOT-USE/a_19th_century_slang_dictionary.htm

Yahoo and Google have long lists of slang dictionaries; search for the etymology of slang.

Answer 2

Huey means bull crap. Malarky means verbal nonsense. Who-ee is a vebal form of a whistle. Woman tend to move as if every joint in their body was stiff (tight) when drunk while men stand stiffly and lurch when they walk. Try early American slang.

Answer 3

I like the word detective answer for "malarchy"
For "full of Huey" I always thought huey or hooey was the cleaned up version of "horsesh---" We may never know the truth because our great grandparents learned the "clean" versions themselves, and never knew the source.

Answer 4

I would bet there are lots of books on slang words/terms. Try Amazon.com. Best wishes and good luck.

P.S. - "Huey" is the stuff that comes out of your colon. "Malarkey" is the stuff that comes out of a bull's colon.

Answer 5

Malarky-full of "s". Tight- drunk hard to deal with.

Answer 6

Huey and malarky, fake, silly, outrageous, stupid.

Ummh... I don't think the other ones need explaining.

Try urban dictionary.

Answer 7

He is the less tacky and ever so indicative of the late mediocre queen, Marie Antoinette. Thank GOd, he's not a monarch otherwise there would be the official storming of Bastile (washing ton DC) and the American Revolution II.

Answer 8

Ask your grandfather or someone of his generation. It's quite interesting if you can get them to explain things. Have fun with it it's interesting and a nice way to communicate with senior citizens.

Answer 9

Here is an entry about malarky http://www.word-detective.com/back-f.html

Answer 10

my grandfather used to say those things too...i like remembering that. i guess its the grandpa equivalent to bull***t