cockamamie
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌkɒk.əˈmeɪ.mi/
ipa: /ˌkɑ.kəˈmeɪ.mi/
ipa: /ˌkɔk.əˈmæɪ.mi/
rhymes: -eɪmi
Forms: form: cockamamies
form: cockamamy
form: cockamammy
Etymology: Possible corruption of French décalcomanie (“process of transferring designs onto surfaces using decals”); sometimes erroneously claimed to derive from Yiddish.
Senses: examples: text: “If it wuz a nickel,” said one broody voice between the gratings, “I could buy fuh two cends cockamamies an’ pud em on mine hull arm. An’ den fuh t’ree cends I’ll go to duh movies.”
“Yuh c’n buy fuh t’ree cends cockamamies.” Izzy crisply revised the dream.
ref: 1934, Henry Roth, Call It Sleep, published 1976, page 367:
text: As a youngster in The Bronx in the early 1930s, I would occasionally take my windfall of a few pennies to the local candy store and buy a strip of cockamamies, ‘comic-style cartoons in brilliant colors, each about an inch by an inch and a half, transferable to forearm or forehead by wetting’, preferably with saliva to make things agreeably messy.
ref: 1987, Verbatim, volumes 14-15, page 24:
text: Lo and behold, in full color there was a photograph of an old glass-paned hanging cupboard with clusters of strawberry, cherry, green grape and apple “cockamamies” pasted in the center of each pane.
ref: 2000, Lillian Bressman, Tales of Mama and Other Reminiscences, page 201:
text: She bought Japanese furniture in 1943 when everyone hated the Japanese. Goldfarb’s furniture store on Pitkin Avenue could hardly give the stuff away. Evelyn had cockamamies—decorative plastic adhesives all over the walls.
ref: 2011, Prospero Shimon, Autobiography of a Repaired Physician, unnumbered page:
glosses: A decal, a design that can be transferred to a surface.
examples: text: “What’s going down here, you cockamamies, we’re releasing two pictures this week about goddamn rich guys who get involved with their goddamn black tenants? What is this, an April Fool’s memo?”
ref: 1970, Esquire, volume 74, page 69:
synonyms: word: alcatote
word: asshat
word: arsehole
word: asshole
word: bayard
word: berk
word: birdbrain
word: blither
word: bobchin
word: bonehead
word: bozo
word: buffoon
word: brickhead
word: Charlie
word: chucklehead
word: chowderhead
word: chump
word: clart
word: clown
word: der-brain
word: dill pickle
word: dim bulb
word: dingleberry
word: dipshit
word: dipstick
word: dirtbrain
word: div
word: divvo
word: divvy
word: dolt
word: donk
word: doodle
word: doofus
word: dope
word: dork
word: dote
word: dotterel
word: dullard
word: dumbass
word: dumbbell
word: dumb fuck
word: dummy
word: dunce
word: dunderhead
word: dupe
word: fathead
word: fenderhead
word: fiddle
word: fuckwit
word: fuzznut
word: geck
word: gig
word: gink
word: goober
word: gooseberry
word: gowk
word: gubbins
word: gump
word: ha'p'orth
word: Homer Simpson
word: ignoramus
word: imbecile
word: jamoke
word: jerk
word: jerkoff
word: jolterhead
word: jolthead
word: juggins
word: jughead
word: knucklehead
word: lamebrain
word: mameluke (US (Italian-American)
word: slang)
word: maroon
word: meathead
word: mong
word: moron
word: mug
word: muggins
word: mushhead
word: nimrod
word: nincompoop
word: nit
word: nitwit
word: not the sharpest knife in the drawer
word: numskull
word: numps
word: numpty
word: nupson
word: oaf
word: pillock
word: pinhead
word: plonker
word: prat
word: retard
word: shit for brains
word: shithead
word: shitwit
word: schmo
word: schmuck
word: snapperhead
word: softhead
word: sot
word: stupid
word: sucker
word: thickhead
word: tonto
word: tool
word: tosser
word: tosspot
word: twat
word: twerp
word: twit
word: wally
word: wantwit
word: wazzock
word: yampy
glosses: A foolish or ridiculous person.
examples: text: Most of his ideas were pure cockamamie. One of them, however, was a real beaut.
ref: 2005, Tom De Haven, It's Superman!, page 217:
text: Among the items related to Liveliness, "Feel that I have a lot of inner strength" is positively keyed, making it an extroverted quality. Really? That's just cockamamie. What does inner strength have to do with introversion or extroversion?
ref: 2012, Sophia Dembling, The Introvert's Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World:
glosses: Ridiculousness; folly; foolish nonsense.