Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Blarney |
BlarneyNoun1. Flattery designed to gain favor. Verb1. Influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering; "He palavered her into going along". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "blarney" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1843. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Literature | Blarney None of your blarney. Soft, wheedling speeches to gain some end; sugar-words. Cormack Macarthy held the castle of Blarney in 1602, and concluded an armistice with Carew, the Lord President, on condition of surrendering the fort to the English garrison. Day after day his lordship looked for the fulfilment of the terms, but received nothing except protocols and soft speeches, till he became the laughing-stock of Elizabeth's ministers, and the dupe of the Lord of Blarney. To kiss the Blarney Stone. Whoever does this shall be able to persuade to anything. The Blarney Stone is triangular, lowered from the north angle of the castle, about twenty feet from the top, and containing this inscription: "Cormac Mac Carthy fortis me fieri fecit, A.D. 1446." Blarney is near Cork. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | BLARNEY. He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller. The blarney stone is a triangular stone on the very top of an ancient castle of that name in the county of Cork in Ireland, extremely difficult of access; so th. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: BlarneySynonyms: coaxing (n), soft soap (n), sweet talk (n), cajole (v), coax (v), inveigle (v), palaver (v), sweet-talk (v), wheedle (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Flattery | Incense, honeyed words, flummery; bunkum, buncombe; blarney, placebo, butter; soft soap, soft sawder; rose water. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Blarney |
| English words defined with "blarney": Blarney stone, Blarneyed, Blarneying ♦ Soft sawder, soft soap. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Blarney Stone (1933) Blarney (1926) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Blarney" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 78.26% of the time. "Blarney" is used about 23 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 78.26% | 18 | 82,615 |
| Noun (proper) | 21.74% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Total | 100.00% | 23 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "blarney": blarney stone. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "blarney"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | mbyt me lajka, lajkatoj (adulate, Blandish, butter up, cajole, coax, flatter, make up to, palaver, play up to, smarm, soft soap, wheedle), fjalë lajkatare (wheedling speech). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | تملق (adulate, blandish, butter, butter up, cajole, cajolery, coax, coaxing, compliment, con, court, cringe, curry favor with, curry favour with, fawn, flatter, flattery, incense, ingratiate oneself, insinuation, kowtow, lick his boots, make, mawkish, oiliness, palaver, servilism, soap, soft soap, subservience, suck up to, sweet talk, taffy, toady, wheedle). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | умилкване, ласкателство (adulation, blandishment, cajolement, cajolery, flattery, lip salve, oil, palaver, soap, soft sawder, soft soap, sweet talk, taffy, toadyism), лаская (adulate, beslaver, cajole, carny, coax, flatter, incense, jolly, palaver, sawder, soap, soft soap, sugar). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | مداهنه (Grease, Unction), چاپلوسی (Cajole, Flattery, Grease, Subservience), زبان چرب ونرم , ریشخندکردن (Bamboozle, Cajole, Coax, Lout, Wheedle). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | boniment, bobards, flatterie (blandishment). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Flunkerei (fib, story-telling). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κολακεύω (adulate, bootlick, butter up, cajole, cringe, curry, fawn, fawn over, flatter, lick his boots, soft soap, suck up), κολακείεσ, κολακεία (adulation, blandishment, flattery, toadyism, wheedling), δελεάζω (allure, bait, cajole, captivate, decoy, ensnare, entice, lure, seduce, tempt). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | "ברי חלקות (flattery). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | udvarlás (addresses, court, courting, courtship, lovemaking, love-making, wooing), talpnyalás (adulation, fulsome flattery, slaver, soft solder, sycophancy, toad-eating, toadyism), mézesmázos beszéd, hízelkedés (cajolement, coaxing), hízelgés (adulation, blandishment, butter, cajolery, cajoling, coaxing, flattering, flattery, palaver, sawder, soft solder, sycophancy, taffy), hízelgő beszéd, hamis beszéd. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | adulazione (adulation, flattery, taffy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | cur blaaderys da, blaaderys (babbling, smooth talk). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | arneyblay bajular (adulate, beslaver, butter up, fawn, flatter, groveller, honey pot), bajulação (adulation, courtliness, fawning, palaver, toadyism), lisonja (blandishment, butter, coaxing, flattery, incense, lipstick, palaver, sawder, sugar), adular (adulate, blandish, butter, butter up, cajole, fawn, flatter, pale, soft soap, wheedle), adulação (adulation, cajolement, cajolery, coaxing, cringing, fawning, flatting, sawder, sugar, toadyism). (various references) vorbi mieros, vorbe mieroase (palaver), vorbe linguşitoare, seduce prin vorbe linguşitoare, convinge (bring, bring over, coax, convince, cozen into, determine, draw, get, induce, persuade, reason, satisfy, settle), adula (adulate, flatter, toady). (various references) лесть (adulation, apple, blandishment, cajolement, cajolery, eyewash, flattery, lipsalve, palaver, sawder, soft sawder, sweet talk, sycophancy, taffy, treacle). (various references) laskati (adulate, butter up, flatter, soft soap), laskanje (blandishment, eyewash, flattery, flatting, lipsalve, soft soap). (various references) labia (gift of the gab, glibness, labia), dar coba a (butter up, soft soap), coba (applesauce, soft soap, taffy), adulación (adulation, flattery, sycophancy). (various references) smicker (apple-sauce, blandishment, flannels, flattery, palaver, sawder, soft soap). (various references) yaltaklanmak (adulate, beslaver, blandish, bow and scrape, court, cringe, curry favor with smb., fawn, grovel, hustle, lick smb.'s boots, play to, slaver, soap down, toady, truckle, wheedle), yaltaklanma (adulation, flattery, flummery, sliminess), yağcılık (blandishment, butter, claptrap, greasiness, insinuation, obsequiousness, oiliness, soapiness, sycophancy, taffy, toadeating, toadyism), yağ çekmek (beslaver, beslobber, blandish, butter up, lay it on thickly, oil, palaver, shine up to, suck up to, toady), dil dökme (blandishment, rose water), dalkavukluk (adulation, butter, flattery, flunkeyism, flunkyism, obsequiousness, slavishness, soapiness, sycophancy, toadeating, toadyism). (various references) умовляти лестощами, солодкі слова. (various references) lời tán tỉnh đường mật, lời dỗ ngọt. (various references) gweniaith (adulation, flattery). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "blarney": blarneyed, blarneying, blarneys. (additional references) | |
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"Blarney" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ballyroney, Balzarini, baney, Bearnley, Bjarne, blainy, blarey, blarn, blarne, blarny, Blayney, Bleadney, Bleaney. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-l-n-r-y" | |
-1 letter: barely, barley, bleary, nearby, nearly. | |
-2 letters: abler, baler, barny, barye, belay, beryl, blare, blear, early, layer, learn, leary, relay, renal, yearn, yerba. | |
-3 letters: able, ably, abye, aery, aryl, bale, bane, bare, barn, bean, bear, blae, brae, bran, bray, bren, byre, byrl, earl, earn, elan, eyra, lane, lean, lear, lyre, nabe, nary, near, rale. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-e-l-n-r-y" | |
+1 letter: bankerly, barrenly, blarneys, brazenly, urbanely. | |
+2 letters: blarneyed, embryonal, endurably, renewably, venerably. | |
+3 letters: aberrantly, barleycorn, blarneying, debonairly, emblazonry, inexorably, loganberry, reasonably, terminably, unbearably, vulnerably. | |
+4 letters: abhorrently, banteringly, barleycorns, bimillenary, brainlessly, candleberry, denumerably, embracingly, exuberantly, impregnably, inalterably, innumerably, inseparably, insuperably, intolerably, nonverbally, observantly, presentably, rentability, salmonberry, treasonably, unalterably, undesirably, unendurably, unmemorably, unutterably. | |
+5 letters: biparentally, bonnyclabber, considerably, cybernetical, demonstrably, determinably, exorbitantly, impenetrably, imponderably, ineradicably, inextricably, insufferably, interlibrary, interminably, invulnerably, labyrinthine, landlubberly, membranously, nonrepayable, pregnability, recognizably, renewability, subcentrally, unanswerably, unreasonably, unrecyclable, unremarkably, unsearchably, venerability. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)42 6C 61 72 6E 65 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-... .-.. .- .-. -. . -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000010 01101100 01100001 01110010 01101110 01100101 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)B l a r n e y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0042 006C 0061 0072 006E 0065 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)36786784807191 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
